Soccer: Phoenix to solider on with a thin squad

Phoenix' Andrew Durante chases down James Downey during the round five A-League match between Wellington Phoenix and Central Coast Mariners. Photo / Getty Images

Wellington Phoenix skipper Andrew Durante says the club's turbulent start to the season is catching up on the players.

The Phoenix slumped to their third consecutive loss when they were beaten 2-1 by the Central Coast Mariners at Westpac Stadium in Wellington last night.

It was the third time in as many games the club have gone down by a solitary goal, although the Mariners made far more of the play during the encounter.

Injuries and suspensions have wreaked havoc with the Phoenix's thin playing roster, while there was the added stress of the franchise being taken over by the Welnix Ltd consortium after Terry Serepisos relinquished the licence for the club.

"I think the red cards, the injuries and suspensions, everything. It's started to take a bit of a toll," Durante said.

"You can't question the effort out there. I mean the boys are giving everything of what we've got. It's not a big playing group at the moment. Ricki [Herbert] has got 15 players to pick from ... It's started to take a toll a little bit and yeah, it's difficult."

Despite the club having the option to sign injury replacements for Lucas Pantelis, Vince Lia and potentially Jimmy Downey who is battling a knee injury, the new owners are yet to open their wallets.

A new striker and another two squad members would give Herbert some options, but instead he has been forced to work short-handed.

The side's lack of scoring ability showed tonight (fri) as they were unable to break down a hard-working Mariners defence.

They did themselves no favours by conceding two second-half goals, with the winner that came from the boot of Matt Simon in the 81st minute looking particularly soft.

His goal was laid on by former Phoenix player Troy Hearfield, who came from the bench to set up the vital strike.

Earlier, Chris Greenacre got the home side on to level terms in front of a small crowd of only 5090.

His well-taken goal in the 69th minute cancelled out Bernie Ibini-Isei's 48th minute strike, which put the visitors ahead after a dour first half.

Central Coast were one of the slow starters in the competition as they lost two of their first three games.

They burst in to life with a 2-1 victory over the Perth Glory last week and Mariners coach Graham Arnold revealed he expected his side to start slowly due to their pre-season campaign.

Rather than take on a 12-14 week lead-up campaign his men went through a core strength and injury prevention programme before taking on a 6-7 week football-focused block of training.

He said the different build up was undertaken with the Asian Champion's League campaign in mind, which kicks off at the back end of the A-League season.

"I think the ball movement now is much better. We are sharper on our feet, but also in the mind," Arnold said.

"We try to treat away games the same as home games. We don't do anything really different and I felt that we won deservedly. I thought that we had much more of the game. More chances. We were more dangerous."

The Phoenix now face the tough ask of heading to meet the rampant Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium next weekend.

Central Coast Mariners 2 (Bernie Ibini-Isei 48, Matt Simon 81) Wellington Phoenix 1 (Chris Greenacre 69) HT: 0-0