Krishna’s goal was a screamer as the flying Fijian cut in from the left-hand side and shot into the top right-hand corner.
It was a history-making evening for the New Zealand-based A-League franchise as Nathan Burns recorded the first A-League hat-trick for the Phoenix in 194 games.
The three goals bumped him to the top of the A-League’s Golden Boot standings.
Adding to the prestige for Krishna was the fact it was the Phoenix’s 250th A-League goal.
Overall the home side had just nine shots, scoring five, while Melbourne City had fifteen yet could only find the back of the net once from the penalty spot.
After just three goals in the last four matches, coach Ernie Merrick was pleased his message about improvement on attack had hit home during the week.
“I’m confident we’ve got a side that can score goals. We’ve got the strikers and midfielders to do it. During the week I said final-third football was where we had to improve and we showed we can do it tonight.”
Despite a sluggish start, Merrick was pleased with the tweaks his side made during the first half.
“I just thought we weren’t playing through Michael McGlinchey enough. Once we opened up and started playing through him, I thought he was outstanding and provided the service for Roy and Nathan up front. All of a sudden it started clicking and we got better and better the longer the game went.
That’s the quality of the football we can play and that is the standard we’ve set. Let’s see if we can keep it up.”
Read more at http://www.wellingtonphoenix.com/article/burns-hails-hughes-tributes/4p6dj88j7jgm1tewx8idvtrnremgZ9qwKXYKgWvr4.99
Story courtesy of Wellington Phoenix

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