Wellington Phoenix are claiming the vindication they sought from A-League officials over controversial referee no-calls in their streak-busting loss to Western Sydney Wanderers.
Two decisions from ref Stephen Lucas and his officiating crew had the capital club furious after their 2-0 defeat, which broke a 13-game unbeaten run through the Aussie competition, dating back to last season.
Coach Ufuk Talay openly criticised their handling of an incident that saw former Phoenix striker Tomer Hemed bump defender Callan Elliot off the ball, before slotting the opening goal past goalkeeper Oli Sail. The goal was reviewed, but only to check an attempt to clear the ball from the line, not the preceding collision.
But Phoenix general manager David Dome was just as heated over what he perceived as a blatant handball in the Wanderers penalty area and pledged to address those concerns with A-League hierachy.
Dome seems to have his answer...
"Spoke to ref assessor re two incidents in WELvWSW," he tweets. "Concede mistakes were made - WSW should have been down to 10 with WEL awarded a [penalty] and WSW goal should have been referred to the onfield ref for review of the push on Elliot.
"We move on."
The loss in their third game of the new season drops the Phoenix to seventh on the competition table, with a road trip to Newcastle United looming on Friday.
Before then, they face a FFA Cup knockout fixture against Western United on Tuesday.
"There are times when you look back at a game and acknowledge the opponent was better than us," says Talay. "I don't think that was the case on the weekend, but that's football, and we have to move on to this Cup game and that's our focus.
"We've been playing good football and I don't think the one loss will turn into a habit."
