Ufuk Talay won't be Wellington's A-League Men manager next year - but the Phoenix boss doesn't want his tenure to end in a whimper.
After weeks of speculation, Talay announced on Friday that he had taken the decision to leave the Kiwi outfit at the end of this season.
The outgoing Phoenix boss has expressed a desire to coach overseas but will undoubtedly attract interest from rival ALM clubs given his impressive stint in New Zealand's capital.
The 'Nix sit fifth heading into this Sunday's meeting with the Brisbane Roar at Auckland's Eden Park and Talay said his side, who have lost three on the spin, needed to get their house in order.
"I don't like losing games," Talay said.
"We haven't played bad football, but we haven't been clinical and we've been sloppy in conceding goals in the way that we did the last three games.
"It's very important, we have spoken about Brisbane Roar to the players this week because for me, it's another grand final that we're playing.
"It's a game that we need to win."
Brisbane are one of the sides giving chase to the Phoenix with three regular-season games left and head to New Zealand following an impressive 3-0 win over the Newcastle Jets.
The Roar have won just one of their last seven meetings with Wellington but interim Brisbane coach Nick Green felt confident his side could cause a boilover and boost their own finals aspirations.
"It's something we want to look for but it's been a week-to-week process," Green said.
"We've got to park that for now and try and get a result this weekend.
"It's massively important and everyone is trying to strive for consistency. If we want to progress up that table, we've got to back up that result against Newcastle.
"Wellington have done really well but we feel there are areas we might be able to exploit."
