Wellington Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert will be hoping none of his players wake up with a mystery illness tomorrow.
Herbert has the bare minimum of 15 fit footballers to work with for tomorrow's clash with the visiting Central Coast Mariners at Westpac Stadium.
With just enough players to fill out a starting line up and the regulation four-man bench, Herbert must have had a few sleepless nights this week hoping none of his fit men go down at training with an ailment.
Compounding the problems of running a small squad with a couple of injury concerns, ill-discipline has been costly for the Wellington-based A-League club this season.
Tomorrow, they are without Ben Sigmund as the All Whites defender serves his one-game suspension for picking up a red card against the Melbourne Victory last week and come on top of the dismissals of Nick Ward, Tim Brown and Manny Muscat in earlier games.
Herbert said, despite his side picking up a string of yellow and red cards this season, they won't change their approach on the pitch.
"We've spoken about it. It's not helping us that's for sure,'' he said.
"I think it's been good. I think it's quite refreshing that we are playing well - I think we are playing well - and chances keep flowing for us. I think it's just at that vital end for us, which wins football matches, and we've worked hard at that area this week. We've just got to take the chances and put them in the back of the net.''
The Phoenix have lost their last two games by a solitary goal and scoring has been a problem for them. They were shut out by Perth a fortnight ago and managed to score only once against an inconsistent Melbourne Victory outfit last week.
Australian centre back Brent Griffiths slots in for Sigmund tomorrow and right-back Nikolas Tsattalios makes way for the returning Muscat.
Aside from having to deal with a different backline in front of him for the past three weeks, new first-choice goalkeeper Tony Warner also has a windy Westpac Stadium to consider.
The 37-year-old, who has been tied to 15 clubs in a lengthy professional career which has spanned far and wide across England, Wales and Scotland before a stint in the Southern Hemisphere, said the Phoenix's home ground was the breeziest place he had ever played at.
"I've played in some windy conditions, but I think this is just windy more often than not. It's quite unpredictable as well,'' the custodian said today after a particularly blustery Phoenix training session.
"It can be tough. You don't mind playing in most conditions. It can be snowing, it can be hail. It can be raining, lashing down at you like that. But wind, there's nothing that kind of moves the ball around like wind and it doesn't get much windier than Wellington.''
The former Liverpool, Millwall, Fulham and Hull City player began the season on the bench behind Mark Paston but took his chance when the All Whites gloveman picked up an injury in the opening game against Gold Coast United.
He kept an uneventful clean sheet against the Newcastle Jets on debut three weeks ago, but looked assured in the losses to Perth and Melbourne.
Central Coast will bring some much-needed momentum to Wellington after they registered their first win of the season with a 2-1 victory over Perth last weekend. The Phoenix and Mariners are both on four points from four games and sit seventh and eighth on the A-League ladder respectively.
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