Phoenix men strike late against Wanderers to stay top of table

Kosta Barbarouses has scored in added time to lift Wellington to a 2-0 victory over Western Sydney and keep the Kiwi outfit locked on top of the A-League Men.

Saturday's game at Sky Stadium looked to be heading for a scoreless draw, until two moments of Barbarouses magic swung things the Phoenix's way.

Following on from his double in Monday's win over Macarthur FC, Barbarouses' raking left-footed shot flew past goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas in the 91st minute to put Wellington 1-0 up.

Not content with that, Barbarouses turned provider barely a minute later with a clinical pass setting up Ben Old, who put the game beyond doubt.

The win ensured the 'Nix remain to the top of the table ahead of next week's trip to face former boss Ufuk Talay, who is now in charge of Sydney FC.

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"It was like a game of chess out there - two really strong defensive teams," Phoenix captain Alex Rufer told Sky Sports NZ.

"(There was) not a lot of space, so you had to move the ball quick and I don't think we did that well enough in the first half, but we were calm, we were patient.

"Sometimes it takes 90 minutes to get a goal and that's what happened today."

The game came to life four minutes before the halftime break when Nicolas Milanovic made the Wanderers' first shot at goal with a well-placed effort.

Wellington goalkeeper Alex Paulsen dived to the ground to stop Milanovic, but the ball deflected straight to the feet of Dylan Pierias and it was only due to the quick thinking of Finn Surman that the Wanderers were denied.

At times it was a tense and nervy affair, Wellington's resolute defence withholding everything a Western Sydney side missing Brandon Borrello, Milos Ninkovic and Josh Brillante could throw at them.

Wellington's best chances were coming on the break and they thought they had taken the lead five minutes from fulltime when Bulgarian striker Bozhidar Kraev hit home.

His joy evaporated quickly when the goal was disallowed for offside, but Barbarouses had no such trouble when he snuck the ball past Thomas to put Wellington ahead in added time.

Old inflicted further damage to wrap up victory for the Phoenix and leave the Wanderers five points adrift of top spot.

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