Phoenix player Maya McCutcheon. Photo: photosport
Maya McCutcheon scored her first professional goal to inspire the Wellington Phoenix to a 1-0 win over Adelaide United and secure their first win of the Women's A-League season.
The American midfielder found the back of the net in the third minute of first half stoppage time before Wellington defended resolutely in the second spell to spark a campaign that began with two defeats.
"I feel amazing," McCutcheon told journalists.
"This is actually my first professional goal too so it's a really surreal moment and I'm just so happy we had fans here to celebrate with.
"As soon as we scored I was like 'guys, we're going. Let's go to the fans' and I'm so happy we did. Just to know there are people supporting us even on the road it makes us want to play that much harder."
Phoenix women's head coach Paul Temple Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Phoenix coach Paul Temple admitted it was a relief to climb off the bottom of the standings.
"We've had a couple of really good performances in the first couple of games that probably warranted some points so… I'm very pleased," he said.
"We really needed that tonight. I was pleased with the first half. I thought we played really well and deserved to be in the lead and then the second half was just about grit, determination, character and digging in.
"We kept a team that's been scoring lots of goals to a clean sheet so I'm really happy. And it's pretty well-documented last season travelling on the road wasn't our strongest so to get a win on the road in Australia is really big for us and it will help us massively with confidence."
Winning boost
Victory also came as a boost in a week in which the club lost the services of Algerian import Imane Chebel, whose contract was terminated by mutual consent just 14 days after it began.
The club announced Chebel had returned home to her native Canada "due to unforeseen circumstances" and would look for a replacement centre back before the registration window closes on Monday.
Temple made four starting changes to the team from last Sunday's 1-0 loss to Newcastle Jets, with Olivia Fergusson, Mebae Tanaka, Olivia Ingham and Lara Wall replacing Emma Main, Annalie Longo, Grace Jale and Manaia Elliott.
Team captain Longo was unable to recover from the nasty blow to her eye in time to play.
McCutcheon finally gave the Phoenix for the reward for their dominance with the last touch of the first half, nodding home from close-range after a Mebae Tanaka free-kick created havoc in Adelaide's box.
Wellington have a two-week break before their next game at home to the Brisbane Roar.
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