Soccer: Rocket is Reddy for the semifinals

Liam Reddy has been great between the sticks. Photo / Getty Images

The nickname Rocket seems to work on so many levels for Liam Reddy.

The Wellington Phoenix goalkeeper can be dynamite between the sticks, is not scared to fling himself around the box and has a reputation for being a little combustible.

Phoenix fans have seen all sides of him in his brief sortie to the capital to fill in for the injured Mark Paston.

Of course, Reddy is the son of another Rocket, Rod Reddy, the celebrated St George and Australia rugby league player and coach. He had a reputation for being an explosive second-rower when the biff, as it was known, was a much loved and respected part of the game.

He's also the brother of Parrammatta Eels centre Joel Reddy and Adelaide netballer Bianca Reddy.

Liam has been excellent in the seven games he has played for Wellington since joining from Brisbane.

The Phoenix have been well served by good goalkeepers in their short history - Glen Moss and Paston - but Reddy is arguably the best of them.

His performance in the 1-0 defeat of Adelaide last weekend was superb. He pulled off a number of top-quality saves to make sure his side picked up all three points.

"Liam has added a lot of experience and organisation behind our back four," coach Ricki Herbert says. "Players in front of him feel very good. He's doing a great job."

Striker Eugene Dadi's arrival from Perth was greeted with approval in January, especially when he scored three goals in his first two games, but it is Reddy who has been even more instrumental in Wellington's resurgence.

They are on the verge of a historic first appearance in the A-League playoffs.

One win from their remaining two games, starting with today's trip to the Gold Coast, will see them guaranteed a finish inside the coveted top six.

Reddy had a better chance than most to make it as a professional sportsman. He spent countless hours around his dad's teams as a youngster, racing off to watch training every day after school when his dad was playing and then coaching.

"It was always something I wanted to do, to play professional sport," Reddy says. "It was really good to be around that every day."

The most likely destination was rugby league. It wasn't until his dad coached Barrow in England in the late 1980s that Reddy took notice of football.

"I had three years over there as a kid and fell in love with the game," he explains. "I got into my soccer over there and came back to Australia and played both. I then got a [football] scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport when I was 17 and I haven't looked back."

He prefers not to dwell on a couple of incidents when he was younger.

He was sent off for punching an opposition player in 2003 and threatened with having his contract torn up. Only a couple of months later his father, who was Parramatta Eels assistant coach at the time, reportedly manhandled Parramatta Power coach Nick Theodorakopoulos for the way he was treating his son.

Liam has grown up a lot since then but, like his father, isn't afraid to speak his mind. He recently said training with new Brisbane coach Ange Postecoglou was "like going to the dentist". He subsequently sought a release from the final year of his contract.

"Goalkeepers are a bit crazy or different," Reddy admits. "We have to be because we play a different position to everyone else. We are a different breed.

"I never like conceding goals but we don't like conceding as a team. I take it personally and I'm sure the back four do too because it reflects on us."

Wellington have kept three clean sheets and conceded eight goals in total with Reddy in goal. Six of those came in Wellington's disappointing two-match tour of Australia (Perth 0-2, Melbourne 0-4) meaning only two have come in the other five games.

It is a large part of the reason why Wellington would be a difficult opponent should they make the playoffs. They are a difficult side to beat, especially in Wellington, where they haven't lost in 16 games, and now seem to understand how to play winning football.

"The most important thing is we qualify for the [top] six but if we can get to the semifinals, that would be massive for us and our fans," says Reddy, who hasn't ruled out signing with Wellington on a more permanent basis.

"Once you're in the semifinals, it's a new competition. If everyone is fit and playing their best, there's nothing stopping us going on in the semifinals."

Certainly not if the Rocket fires.