Wellington Phoenix v Macarthur: Late strike means Giancarlo Italiano’s side suffer back-to-back home defeats

Kazuki Nagasawa of the Phoenix as his side suffered a defeat against Macarthur. Photo / Photosport

The Wellington Phoenix have slumped to back-to-back A-League defeats at home, after losing 1-0 to Macarthur thanks to a late strike from substitute Harry Sawyer.

The game seemed destined to be a stalemate until Sawyer latched on to a cross to score the Bulls’ first away goal of the season and claim all three points, which means they leapfrog the Phoenix in the standings.

The Phoenix have now lost their last two outings after suffering a 2-1 defeat to Auckland FC before the recent international window.

It’s the first time the Phoenix have failed to score this season and they didn’t register a shot on target until the final minutes of the match when Carlo Armiento’s long-range strike was saved by Filip Kurto.

But the Phoenix, who dominated and had more shots, would have conceded more if not for the heroics of goalkeeper Josh Oluwayemi, who produced his best performance for the side.

“He kept us in it,” captain Alex Rufer told Sky Sports after the match.

“There were some sloppy moments from us defensively and he kept us in the game, so hats off to him. He was brilliant tonight and he’s really growing this year.”

With the Phoenix playing a high defensive line, Oluwayemi was called on countless times during the match and produced numerous saves to keep his team in the match.

The visitors thought they had opened the scoring in the eighth minute, but Matt Jurman’s strike was ruled out because of being offside.

It took 30 minutes for the Phoenix’s first real opportunity when Ifeanyi Eze’s header went over the crossbar from a Kazuki Nagasawa free kick.

Phoenix goalkeeper Josh Oluwayemi produced his best performance for the side on Saturday. Photo / Photosport

On the ensuing play, Olawaeymi was forced into his first stunning save when he got a hand to Ji Dong-won’s strike towards the bottom corner.

Olawaeymi was called upon again in the 60th minute when Sime Grzan broke clear from inside his own half to be one-on-one with the keeper, but the Phoenix import was up to the task and made a vital block.

The Phoenix had the ball in the back of the net in the 77th minute but Eze was denied, as Nagasawa was offside in the lead-up.

Then came Sawyer’s strike, which extends the Phoenix’s streak without a clean sheet to 17 matches.

Rufer played the entire match despite only landing back in the capital on Friday having played 80 minutes in the All Whites’ 2-0 loss to Ecuador on Wednesday.

But he refused to use that as an excuse for the loss.

“We should still be better,” Rufer said. “That’s no excuse.

“We need to be better and we lost it towards the end, but we need to just try and still be positive and look towards the next few games.”

It doesn’t get any easier for the Phoenix as next Saturday they host Adelaide United, who are coming off a 4-1 win over defending champions Melbourne City.

Ben Francis is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.