A horrible afternoon for the Phoenix. They were outplayed from start to finish, and shipped four goals with a number of poor defensive errors. The persistence to play out from the back worked for them last season, but it hasn't this time around, and again they played themselves into trouble with underhit passes and unforced errors, allowing Western United to pounce. It really looked pretty clueless from Italiano tactically in the end, with his failure to mix it up, and once again they lacked any attacking threat, registering just a single shot on target. It means Wellington are one more loss away from five defeats in a row, a club record, and morale is increasingly low as their campaign fades away.