Arthur Diles was pleased to see Melbourne Victory find a way to three points against Wellington Phoenix.
The visitors did not have it all their own way in New Zealand, but never trailed at Sky Stadium and had more control than the final 2-3 scoreline would indicate.
First-half goals from Sebastian Esposito and Nishan Velupillay bookended Carlo Armiento’s equaliser, although this only had the Phoenix level for five minutes.
Substiute Louis D’Arrigo netted his second of the 2025/26 season to extend Victory’s lead before an own goal from a corner gave the hosts false hope during the closing stages.
Speaking during his post-match press conference, Diles talked about the value of securing a first away win of 2026 in Round 16.
“Really happy with the result. Performance wasn’t outstanding, but it was good enough to get the points, and I think we deserve that.
“It’s one game at a time, still, a lot of games ahead of us. It’s important that you turn up every week in this competition and do a job. Our away form hasn’t been outstanding, something we’ve been addressing and wanted to work on and improve. That’s probably more important today than a performance, the way that we can get the points away from home, which was really timely.”
Diles made several changes for the team that started the win, including a full debut for Charles Nduka and a first start of the campaign for Reno Piscopo.
The Head Coach, when further reflecting on the win, which lifts Victory to fifth, explained his team selction for the second outing of February.
“We freshened up the team tonight. We made quite a few changes to the starting line-up. We had a really short turnaround with back-to-back travel, and we had to be mindful of making sure we put a team out there that’s fresh enough to compete, because we know it’s always a difficult match here.
“I think all the players that came in did really well, and in the end, everyone’s contributed to a fantastic result.”
Watch Diles’ full press conference below.
