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ALL three points and a clean sheet - now that's how you bounce back from a 4-0 drubbing.
The Central Coast Mariners may not have played at their fortress Bluetongue Stadium, but goalkeeper Liam Reddy couldn't have felt more at home at North Sydney Oval in front of a 6000 strong crowd.
Reddy pulled off some memorable saves throughout the game to ensure Wellington went home empty handed - again.
Mariners coach Phil Moss said his team did well to grind out a result in unfamiliar surroundings and paid tribute to Reddy's mature performance.
"He copped a bit from the weekend with the mistake down in Adelaide and I thought he showed some real mental toughness tonight to come back and put on a performance like that," Moss said.
"It's fair to say that it wasn't one of our prettiest performances. I thought we ground out the three points, but I think coming off the back of a bad result on the weekend against Adelaide it showed a lot of mental strength to find a way to win the game."
Storm Roux's first-half goal was enough to settle the encounter for Phil Moss' men and put last weekend's heavy defeat to Adelaide behind them.
Mile Sterjovski's cross from the right found Roux, who slotted home in the 27th minute. It was the South Africa-born, Kiwi international's first ever A-League goal.
The Mariners had looked lively up to then, particularly Nick Fitzgerald down the left, but it was far from a dominant first-half performance. The Phoenix had the better chances and it took some fine goalkeeping from Reddy, on top of Nick Montgomery's clearance off the line, to stop the visitors from taking the lead.
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The Mariners were let off the hook numerous times throughout the game and Moss knows there's still plenty of work to do.
"We were the masters of our own undoing with regards to the amount of possession they had," Moss said.
"We just gave away too much cheap ball and we need to take a lot more pride in what we do with the ball."
Wellington, without their injured and disgruntled star player Carlos Hernandez, blew their best chance to go level when Stein Huysegems missed a penalty minutes after the break. Emmanuel Muscat was tripped in the box by Roux and the referee didn't didn't hesitate to point to the spot. Huysegems hit his shot well enough, but it was at the perfect height for Reddy to make a diving save to his left.
Wellington coach Ernie Merrick felt his team would have gone on to win the game if the penalty had been scored.
Buoyed by Huysegems miss, the Mariners produced two great chances minutes later to double their lead. First, Josh Rose found playmaker Marcos Flores, who should have done better with his close-range shot. Then Wellington's keeper Glenn Moss pulled off one of the saves of the season to tip Fitzgerald's attempt over the bar.
It was a familiar story for Wellington, who played well but just couldn't convert their chances. And they had many of them, right up until the dying minutes of the game.
To his credit, Merrick was upbeat after the game, but did admit his players are struggling to find confidence.
The result moves the Mariners up to fourth on the A-League ladder, eight points behind leaders Brisbane, while the Phoenix remain winless this season.
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