Wellington Phoenix captain Alex Rufer has a message for the rest of the Isuzu UTE A-League: “There’s nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal”.
Rufer was speaking after Wellington’s fading finals hopes took another hit following a 1-0 loss at home to Melbourne City on Friday night.
Wellington are now five games without a win amid three consecutive defeats which have left last season’s Semi-Finalists 11th and nine points adrift of the top six.
Rufer acknowledged the Phoenix face an uphill battle with eight games remaining but the skipper is not putting a line through his side.
“I think we’re close,” Rufer told Sky Sport New Zealand post-match when asked about instilling belief in the team.
“Unfortunately it might be one of those ones where it’s too little too late now. But we need to win eight games, or every game from now and that’s the way we have to play. We have to believe in that.
“As soon as we do get a result, things might turn. I’m proud of the team. We just need to keep fighting.”
Wellington were looking for a response after their 6-1 rout at the hands of league-leading Auckland FC in the New Zealand Derby.
The Phoenix did respond but succumbed to a Marco Tilio goal in the second half
Rufer added: “We did show a bit of a reaction after last week.
“Very disappointing result but tonight I still think we were very sloppy with the ball. We had some really good moments but also we made some poor mistakes.
“If we had some more composure, we could’ve put more pressure on them but they’re a really good team and punished us.”
