Coach Aurelio Vidmar has hailed Melbourne City's response to a mid-week heart-to-heart after his charges snapped a five-game winless run with a 1-0 victory over A-League Men leaders Wellington.
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With Marco Tilio and Mathew Leckie sidelined, and City in the midst of their longest winless run since March 2019, Samuel Souprayen's header in the 58th minute proved the difference at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
City had 27 shots (eight on target) to Wellington's 11 (two) in an impressive response.
"The mindset was completely different. We had nothing to lose and we went for it," Vidmar said.
"(That's) part of what the City Group DNA is and that's the way we had to play and I'm very proud of the players because we had a mental shift during the week and a big discussion about it.
"I just opened up about how it should be and what my beliefs are and the values in terms of doing justice to the City Group in terms of the DNA of the football that's being played here - and that's what we did tonight.
"... We haven't met those expectations at all, certainly for probably the last six-to-eight weeks.
"But tonight was a good start again, where it should be."
Captain Jamie Maclaren, who hadn't scored in nine games, dropped to the bench for 18-year-old striker Max Caputo, before entering the fray as a second-half substitute.
"I don't like to use that word (dropped). But we're in constant dialogue," Vidmar said.
"We spoke a couple of weeks ago about 'maybe just taking a little bit of pressure off you' - and just starting on the bench and coming on during the course of the game.
"And at the end I decided against it. But I thought now was the right time."
Maclaren could start Tuesday's high-stakes home clash with Western Sydney.
City will enter that contest seventh, and two points behind the six-placed Wanderers.
The defeat means Wellington remain only three points clear of second-placed Central Coast.
City scored the winner when Tolgay Arslan played a one-two with Vicente Fernandez then looped a wonderful ball to the back post, where Souprayen steamed in and powered home a super header.
Kosta Barbarouses spurned a golden opportunity to equalise in the 81st minute, turning a shot wide under pressure from Jamie Young.
"The positive was that we didn't give up and we threw everything at them," Phoenix coach Giancarlo Italiano said.
"At the same time, this is a good lesson for us that if we play like that now for the rest of the season, that's not going to be enough for us to go where we want to go and get the points that we need."
Australian Associated Press
