Wellington Phoenix have slumped to their first consecutive A-League defeats under second-year coach Giancarlo Italiano, felling 2-1 to Macarthur FC at Sky Stadium.

The result is the Bulls’ first-ever success in the NZ capital, keeping the home team winless on their home turf this season. It may also see the Phoenix drop out of the playoff picture, with their opponents leapfrogging them and three more games scheduled for Saturday.

After dropping two local derby games against Auckland FC, this was Wellington’s third defeat of their campaign.

Italiano promoted veteran Marco Rojas into the starting line-up for the first time since his return to the club where his professional career began 15 years ago.

Macarthur opened the scoring in the sixth minute, when defender Isaac Hughes – whose head was responsible for an own goal last week – could not withdraw his arm from a skidding ball into the goalmouth.

Striker Marin Jakolis somehow sprayed his pointblank shot wide, but rookie referee Campbell-Kirk Kawana-Waugh immediately pointed to the penalty spot. Keeper Josh Oluwayemi initially blocked the spot-kick from Valerie Germain, but the rebound fell at Germain’s feet and he made no mistake with his second effort.

Germain played dangerously across goal, overrun by Jakolis at the far post, but the Phoenix initially struggled to place any meaningful threat on the Macarthur goal.

Their best opportunity came from a corner that was not cleared by the Bulls defence and Hideki Ishige’s second-effort cross just missed striker Kosta Barbarouses. Moment slater, defender Tim Payne saw his rightfoot rocket deflected away by former Phoenix keeper Filip Kurto.

Barbarouses made a promising run through centrefield, with Rojas trying to position himself for the pass, but had to let the ball past in an offside position. Ishige tried to curl one back from the byline, but found only woodwork.

Payne broke down the wing and found Ishige in the area, but the Japanese international could not summon enough power to beat Kurto. Another cross from Payne was deflected for a corner by defender Tomis Uskok, just ahead of Barbarouses’ lunge.

Their pressure finally told, when Barbarouses found Rojas with a clever backheel pass and then accepted the return pass with an open goal in front. The striker made no mistake with his 98th A-League goal, as the two teams turned deadlocked at halftime.

Macarthur had the first real chance of the second half, when Danny de Silva unleashed from outside the penalty area, but Oluwayemi covered the threat. Jakolis guided a tantalising cross towards the right post ,where Jed Drew could not find the angle inside the left post.

Wellington weathered the pressure and responded, as defender Sam Sutton found Barbarouses in front of goal, but Kurto produced a splendid reflex save.

The Bulls were the next to strike, when Ariath Deng Piol entered the penalty bo and fed a return pass to Jakolis, who found Dean Bosnjak for the goal.

The home side desperately bombarded goal in search of another equaliser. Macarthur midfielder Jake Hollman retreated quickly to defuse an attack, then had the wherewithal to drag himself back into the field of play, as he cramped up, effectively burning up valuable seconds.

Ultimately, the result marked the first back-to-back setbacks for Wellington since April 2023 under previous coach Ufuk Talay.

"Really, really disappointed to be honest," refelcted Phoenix captain Alex Rufer. "We keep shooting ourselves in the foot.

"Something we were so good at last year was defending our box, but for whatever reason, lapses in concentration this year, we have not been good. We have to keep moving.

"Today was probably our best game with the ball, getting into good areas. Kosta and Marco look good together, but just really sloppy goals."

The Phoenix have a chance to rebound at Western Sydney Wanderers next Sunday.

Macarthur FC 2 (Germain, Bosnjak) Wellington Phoenix 1 (Barbarouses)