Auckland FC thrash Wellington Phoenix
- Dave Worsley
- Feb 22
- 3 min read
Auckland FC have completed a clean sweep of New Zealand Derby wins over Wellington Phoenix in season 2024-25 with a 6-1 victory inspired by a Neyder Moreno hat-trick at Mt Smart.
Meeting for the third time this season, Auckland romped to a 3-0 lead at half-time, with Moreno scoring twice in five minutes before Logan Rogerson put the hosts out of sight with their third goal before half-time.
LATEST HEADLINES:
Four minutes after the break, Wellington teenager Luke Brooke-Smith became the club’s youngest-ever goalscorer with an opportunistic finish that gave the visitors hope but Moreno put Auckland back in control with his hat-trick goal on the hour mark.
With 80 minutes on the clock, Rogerson scored his second goal of the game with a long-distance stunner as they extended their lead to four. Jesse Randall capped off the phenomenal Auckland performance with his side’s sixth of the game in the final minute of stoppage time.
Auckland head coach Steve Corica began the season utilising Moreno as an impact player off the bench but the Colombian has quickly become a pivotal starter for the side. The derby hat-trick brought Moreno to within one goal of Sydney FC’s Joe Lolley who leads the A-League’s current Golden Boot race with nine goals.
Saturday’s derby played out in front of 27,009 fans at Mt Smart the biggest-ever regular season crowd for a club football game in New Zealand, as Auckland extended their lead at the top of the table to eight points.
Wellington made a bright start to the New Zealand Derby and earned an early free-kick on the edge of the box when Auckland centre-back Nando Pijnaker clattered into Corban Piper as the Phoenix youngster attempted to drive into the penalty area.
Pijnaker earned a yellow card for his troubles, and up stepped Hideki Ishige to take the resulting free-kick. Ishige bent the ball toward the top-left corner and would have found the back of the net if not for a diving save from Alex Paulsen.
Max Mata had the ball in the back of the net for Auckland but the home crowd’s celebrations were thwarted by the referee’s whistle. It was adjudged Mata had pushed Tim Payne to ground before dispatching his header on goal.
But the disallowed goal proved only to be a warning to the Phoenix of what was to come, as Auckland scored three goals in nine minutes to surge to a 3-0 lead before half-time.
Moreno opened the scoring just after the half-hour mark after another De Vries free-kick angled toward Alby Kelly-Heald on the goal line; the Phoenix keeper swatted the ball away but couldn’t clear the danger as Moreno attacked the loose ball in the box to fire the hosts into the lead.
Five minutes later, Moreno doubled his tally with a similar strike on the half-volley, buried past Kelly-Heald into the back of the net.
Barely settled back into their seats after celebrating Moreno’s quickfire brace, the home fans were quickly back on their feet when Rogerson put Auckland into a three-goal lead with a close-range header in front of The Port.
There was a lengthy delay as the officiating team assessed whether Rogerson had strayed offside before receiving Felipe Gallegos’ cross off the left wing but the lines drawn by the VAR concluded Phoenix full-back Lukas Kelly-Heald had kept Rogerson onside.
Phoenix coach Italiano swung the changes at half-time, bringing Brooke-Smith, Nathan Walker and Alex Rufer off his bench in place of Lukas Kelly-Heald, Fin Roa Conchie and Hideki Ishige – and the change in personnel helped the visitors get back into the contest.
Four minutes after the restart, Wellington made it 3-1 when 16-year-old Brooke Smith found himself in the right place at the right time to become the club’s youngest-ever A-League goalscorer.
At 16 years and 261 days, the highly-rated Phoenix forward jumped ahead of a host of club favourites on Wellington’s list of all-time youngest scorers: