There was a buoyant mood at Wellington Phoenix training today, players understandably buzzing after their first win of the season.
The 4-1 win over Macarthur lifted a lot of weight off the Phoenix's shoulders and ensured their best start to the A-League season since 2015/2016.
"It was fantastic, it was a beautiful day in the Capital and the football reflected that in some ways," Phoenix goalkeeper Oli Sail said.
"It was nice to score a bunch of goals."
In fact on Sunday the Nix reached their 10th goal in five games, that's nearly a third of the goals they scored last season.
Not only that they're finding a variety of ways to score, whether it be a sublime Clayton Lewis freekick or Bozihdar Kraev completing an excellent team move.
Not to mention also, Ben Waine is second on the goal scoring table with three strikes.
While it's still early days and they sit seventh on the ladder with six points, this isn't as slow of a start Nix fans have been used to over the years.
"Uffie (Talay) has made some changes and nobody is safe," Sail said.
"That's been reflected in the last two performances, when you have that natural competition for places. People have to go out there with hunger, they have to perform otherwise they're not going to play."
The 26-year-old believes the quality of new foreign players and the promotion of youth at Ufuk Talay's disposal has given the coach the ability to impact the flow of games more.
He said this season's performances, like the last gasp 2-2 draw at Melbourne City, is proving the Phoenix will be a 90-minute team.
"I think last year, the quality of our performances was still there but at times we had to really hold on tight for the last 20-30 minutes because we didn't quite have that depth off the bench," the goalkeeper said.
"It makes a massive difference when you've got players who can come off the bench and add something to the game and change it in our favour."
While scoring goals hasn't been a problem, Sail admitted the team has conceded more than they would have liked.
"I'm still searching for that clean sheet!
"Conceding goals is frustrating, I think that's nine goals now, that's a tidy up area for us.
"Last year we finished top six but had a negative goal difference, significantly negative. That's the difference between getting to play at home in the play-off games."
The team which knocked them out of the play-offs last year is who they'll be facing this weekend, Western United.
The defending A-League champions however arrive in the capital in dire straights, bottom of the table with the worst defence of 14 goals.
Win and the Phoenix boost their chances of pushing into the top six when the A-League pauses for the FIFA World Cup in two weeks' time.
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