Wellington Phoenix sprung to life after a dour first half to clinch a hard-fought 2-1 win over Sydney FC at Westpac Stadium on Saturday.
After a goalless first 45 minutes, a Paul Ifill penalty and a first goal in Phoenix colours for Nick Ward was enough to claim the much-needed three points ahead of two away fixtures against Victory and Heart in Melbourne in the coming week.
Ifill's spot-kick five minutes into the second spell was cancelled out by Bruno Cazarine's equaliser midway through the half before Ward fired the winner into the corner of Liam Reddy's goal with 18 minutes remaining.
It left Sydney without a win from the opening six rounds and stretched Wellington's unbeaten run at Westpac Stadium to 22 A-League matches.
Injury forced changes in both line-ups with Wellington missing goalkeeper Mark Paston (neck) and midfielder Vince Lia (hamstring) and Nick Carle ruled out for Sydney with a toe problem.
Carle was replaced by Hirofumi Moriyasu, while Cazarine was handed a first start for the sky blues with Kofi Danning dropping to the bench.
Danny Vukovic earned his first start for the Phoenix in goal and Manny Muscat returned from international duty with Malta to slot into a defensive midfield role behind Ward and Tim Brown and Leo Bertos returned to the starting line-up with Daniel and Dylan Macallister making way.
There was no room for Jade North however after his delayed arrival into the New Zealand capital.
Chances were few and far between in the first half. Wellington had the best of the early opportunities with Brown heading onto the crossbar after a good build-up by Ifill who turned Sung-Hwan Byun inside out before delivering the ball in to the midfielder.
A few minutes later and Bertos' corner kick was headed away by Sebastian Ryall to Ifill but his shot bounced just wide of Reddy's left-hand upright.
After a couple of speculative efforts from Moriyasu, who was a constant menace to the Phoenix defence, and Stuart Musialik, Cazarine had the first real chance for Sydney midway through the first half.
Vukovic charged off his line and was beaten to the ball by Scott Jamieson who nudged it on to the Brazilian but he shot wide.
Cazarine's clumsy challenge on Chris Greenacre in the box early in the second half resulted in a yellow card and a penalty to the Phoenix, which Ifill coolly converted to put his side in front.
In the 67th minute Cazarine turned from villain to hero when he worked a nice one-two with Mark Bridge to split the Phoenix defence and fire home the equaliser.
The Phoenix responded quickly though with Greenacre turning provider for Ward who blasted the ball into the top right-hand corner to send the crowd of 8,453 fans away happy.