Wellington Phoenix striker Paul Ifill admits he was surprised after the 6-0 demolition of Gold Coast United on Sunday. The former Crystal Palace man knew that the team's fortunes would eventually turn but did not expect it to happen so quickly and in such an extreme way.
"I definitely didn't think it would come that quickly and not against the league leaders," said Ifill, who turned in a maestro's performance setting up three of the Phoenix's six goals and chiming in with one of his own.
"But I felt we'd been playing too well not to turn it around. If you look at the stats from the Gold Coast game they wouldn't be too different from what we've achieved previously, apart from the final ball being a bit better and the finishing definitely better.
"I felt that on the day we were going to be good enough for a 2-0 or 3-0 win," Ifill added.
"At halftime we went into the sheds (up 1-0), spoke about it and said 'let's get a second and third and finish these guys off'. We didn't think for a minute we'd get six. You get to 3-0 against the league leaders and you think, 'hold on a minute, we're not bad'. We had the licence to put the pressure on and we set up in a very attacking formation."
Prior to the brilliant victory, the Phoenix had drawn six matches in a row, proving they are definitely a hard side to beat but also suggesting they were non-winners.
"We've become hard to beat," Ifill added further.
"It's just a matter of consistently going that extra yard to close games out. We've been in similar situations in previous matches as we were against Gold Coast, coming into halftime leading and coming back out trying to sit on a lead and hoping we get another goal eventually.
"On Sunday we thought 'let's go out there, put it to them and see how they react'. This time we put them away."
Wellington will be looking to back up their best-ever performance when they take on Sydney FC at the Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday and push for a top six spot on the A-League table.
"We'll go into the game against Sydney with confidence, but we know one swallow doesn't make a summer," said Ifill.
"It'll be a very hard game, they're top of the table, and they gave us our worst beating of the season the last time we played them over there (a 2-0 loss). We'll be going there aiming to sort them out."
