Sydney have only dropped three points and are five points clear of Melbourne in second. They have leading goalscorer Adam le Fondre as well as assist kings Alexander Baumjohann and Brandon ONeill in the squad and will be looking to outshoot the Yellow and Black.
But Devlin, who played nine times for Sydney last season, is keen to send them back home with their tail between their legs. “Im itching to play and I cant wait. Well try and take it to them and dominate and hopefully we can put the ball in the back of the net,” he said.
Wellington are on a five game unbeaten run with three wins sandwiched between two draws, and Devlin has credited new head coach Ufuk Talay with implementing a successful style that the players enjoy.
Bark worse than their bite?
“We want to win the ball back in defence and be dogs but on the ball we want to be footballers,” continued the midfielder. “It might be new for the Phoenix but as footballers we love it but we have to improve on it and get better.”
Sydney are odds on favourites to come to New Zealand and take all three points home. With only eight goals conceded in nine games, they have the best defence in the A-League and that will pose problems for the Nix who failed to break down 10-man Melbourne Victory last weekend.
Their plan is built around getting the ball wide to overlapping full-backs, but so far goals and assists have been concentrate on just two players. Ulises Davila has scored seven times while David Ball is the main creator with three assists.
Winger Jaushua Sotirio also has three and between him and Ball they account for 75% of the squad total. That will need to improve over time, but as Devlin says ‘were a young, hungry squad and that helps massively.’