Wellington Phoenix's woes continued on Wednesday night as they fell 2-1 to the Newcastle Jets at Westpac Stadium.
The match was pushed forward due to a scheduling clash with the New Zealand national team's World Cup Qualifiers from round 26.
The match was Chris Greenacre's first match in charge as the manager after Ricki Herbert quit just one day before, leaving little time for adjustment.
The fans were bright in remembering Herbert, displaying a tribute to their foundation manager which seemed to inspire the Phoenix who started well.
Louis Fenton and Paul Ifill had one of their most impressive performance of the year as Wellington got off to a good start, looking dangerous down the left.
But Newcastle quickly settled and took control and should have taken the lead in the 15th minute when Emile Heskey missed what should have been a simple finish after Michael Bridge's pass left the simplest of tap-ins for Heskey who somehow missed.
That was only a stay of execution for the home side as four minutes later the Jets hit the lead as Josh Brilliante's low cross found an unmarked Adam Taggart who easily opened the scoring.
Just one minute from the break the Jets doubled their lead as a free-kick allowed Craig Goodwin to cross for Bridges who hit a diving header that left Moss with no chance.
Wellington Phoenix came out from the break looking a much better side, seeing more of the ball and breaking in to the Jets half much more often.
On the hour mark Corey Gameiro proved again to be a huge influence as he capitalized on a poor back pass and found Fenton who saw his shot deflected by the head of keeper Mark Birighitti only for the rebound to fall to Jeremy Brockie who was left with a simple tap-in.
Glenn Moss had to be at his best moments later to keep Wellington in touch in the final minutes as Newcastle looked to restore a two goal lead.
Tempers flared in the dying stages forcing the referee to brandish four yellow cards after the 80th minute as Newcastle maintained the 2-1 lead for a valuable three points.
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