Phoenix stopped Mooy in practice, now it must do it for real

Wellington Phoenix succeeded in restricting the impact of an Aaron Mooy "play-alike" in a practice game at training this week, but now it must try to do the real thing in Sunday's game against Melbourne City at AAMI Park.

Melbourne City's Aaron Mooy is challenged by Phoenix midfielder Michael McGlinchey in round 17. (Getty) Source: Getty Images Asia Pacific

And that is a very difficult task on a weekly basis for teams facing City, because Mooy is one of the best-performed players in the A-League this season. His form recently gained him a return to the Socceroos squad after he narrowly missed the cut for the AFC Asian Cup.

Wellington defender Louis Fenton told The World Game his club's first-choice XI played a practice game against the rest of the squad set up the way City plays.

Asked who filled the Mooy role as the playmaker from midfield and how the first XI went in trying to stop him, Fenton replied: "We worked on what they like to do and how best to try to stop it. That's pretty standard practice. Jason Hicks played the Mooy role and we managed to keep him quiet.

"If we can do that against Mooy on Sunday it will go a long way towards us winning. He's their key man and if we can stop him it will put us in a good position.

"It's obviously not going to be easy, because Mooy has been playing so well, but hopefully we can get him in his own half as much as possible and put the pressure on him there.

"We've got to try to keep City quiet early, so we can play our way into the game as we would like."

Wellington recently won four straight games and built a four-point lead at the top of the competition table, but then two straight losses sent it tumbling to fourth place going into this round.

Sydney FC's win over Perth Glory on Friday night immediately pushed Phoenix back to fifth, gravely threatening its chances of finishing in either the top four, and getting a home game in the first week of the finals, or the all-important top two and getting the first week of the finals off.

Fenton agreed it was time for Wellington to make a statement in Sunday's game.

"It has obviously not been good, losing the last two, and we're back to focusing on the little things," he said.

"We've been working on getting back to how we were playing before that, so we'll be creeping a bit higher up the field and trying to be more positive on the ball.

"Every team goes through a stage where every little mistake you make gets capitalised on by the opposition. That has happened to us and now we've got to get back to where we were.

"It's a huge game for us and we need to get that confidence back and show that we are still good enough.

"There has been a bit of talk among the players about how important this game is, but you could just tell the players realised that from how everyone was when they arrived at training this week.

"Everyone was a little bit keener and sharper. The game face has been on from the start of the week. The results in the last two rounds are crucial and everyone knows that."

Fenton said it was good for the Phoenix players to be on the road this week, so that they could bond after a couple of losses and push each other to a big performance.

"For whatever reason, we've gone well on the road this season," he said. "It's definitely not a bad thing to get all the boys together and focus on the game.

"It's such a big game for us this week."