Wellington Phoenix celebrate the goal of Kosta Barbarouses during their Round 8 match against Macarthur FC. Photo: Photosport
The Wellington Phoenix have emphatically ended Macarthur FC's unbeaten start to the season to return to the top of the A-League.
The Phoenix crushed Macarthur 3-0 at Campbelltown Sports Stadium in Sydney to jump from fifth to first after eight rounds.
Bozhidar Kraev's fourth goal of the season gave Wellington a deserved 1-0 halftime lead before Kosta Barbarouses scored a brace early in the second half to put the side well in control.
The Phoenix could have and should have scored more, but head coach Giancarlo Italiano was happier with the team's defensive performance to bounce back from last week's 3-0 home defeat to Newcastle Jets.
"Delighted for Kosta [scoring] two goals, the whole team was good. I can't really fault anyone," Italiano told media post-match.
"I was looking for was an up in performance this week in terms of defence and making sure that we stick to our game plan, and it was irrelevant if we won or not.
"I base everything around the performance and if we defend well that solves half the problem and we don't lose the game.
"I was really stoked, especially in that first half. They had a lot of chances and we defended well. They didn't really have clear shots. They had a lot of half chances, which is done by design.
"And then once we scored it opened up and they had to go to plan B and plan C, and I felt like we exploited that quite well so I was very happy."
Young goalkeeper Alex Paulsen saved his third penalty of the season to secure the team their fourth clean sheet of the season.
"At 3-0 it's a big moment, right, because you give them a sniff and then all of a sudden it goes 3-1 and then 3-2 and then everyone starts getting a little bit nervous.
"That penalty save definitely kept the momentum with us."
Giancarlo Italiano made three changes to the XI which started the seventh round defeat to Newcastle, with Sam Sutton, Ben Old and David Ball replacing Lukas Kelly-Heald, Mo Al-Taay and the injured Oskar Zawada. Kelly-Heald and Al-Taay were named amongst the substitutes.
The Wellington Phoenix will return home on Wednesday before quickly turning their attention to Saturday's match against third-placed Western Sydney Wanderers at Sky Stadium.