Alex Wilkinson believes that Sydney FC are in for a difficult game when they take on Wellington Phoenix on Monday night.
The Sky Blues beat the Nix in their first A-League game of the season with a 2-1 victory in Wellington thanks to goals from Calem Nieuwenhof and Luke Brattan. But that victory was followed by a 1-1 draw with Western Sydney Wanderers and a surprise 2-0 defeat to Central Coast Mariners.
Steve Corica’s men went on to put in a strong performance against Macarthur FC in their most recent fixture, where young forward Patrick Wood scored on either side of an excellent individual goal from Milos Ninkovic.
Meanwhile, Wellington went three games without a win before edging out Cestral Coast in a narrow 2-1 victory in Gosford, where it could be argued that the Mariners were the better side over the course of 90 minutes.
But the veteran defender insists that he still expects the Kiwi club to pose a serious threat, given the fact that they finished third in the A-League last season.
“Wellington showed in the first game that they’re a good team,” Wilkinson told the club’s official website.
“They had a great year last year.
“Ufuk has got them playing really well and they picked up a win against the Mariners a couple of nights ago. So they are going to be tough.”
He added: “First game of the season, we played played really well in the first-half there. We created quite a few chances.
“In the second-half, we dropped off a little bit. That’s been improving every week since and I thought the performance against Macarthur was good.
“It was great to score some goals and get the confidence up, and we’ll keep that rolling into Wellington.”
Sydney FC lock horns with Wellington Phoenix at the Kogarah Oval on Monday night.
