Phoenix worried by small crowds

Phoenix was plagued by ownership uncertainty and a horror injury run at the start of the season in October, but has played its way into third place on the ladder after 18 weeks.

However numbers at Westpac Stadium for home games haven't yet topped 10,000, generally hovering between 5,000-7,000 mark.

Morgan said he wanted crowds of 15,000 at every home game and could see no reason why that wasn't possible.

"We're the cheapest tickets in league and the smallest crowd," he said on social networking site Twitter.

"Newcastle is a smaller city, has a worse team and bigger crowds. Welly needs to pick it up."

Morgan said the consortium which took over Phoenix in October after Terry Serepisos stepped aside would have to look at other options if crowd numbers didn't improve.

Phoenix has played two home games out of Wellington this season - over 20,000 saw a 1-1 draw against Adelaide United in Auckland in November, while a more modest 4,600 watched the team down Brisbane Roar 2-0 a month later in Dunedin.

Wellington also played Roar in a warm-up game in the city in August, when the student population boosted numbers to over 15,000.

Last season's match in Christchurch against Adelaide United saw Phoenix home 2-1 in front of more than 14,000.

Phoenix is riding high after a club-first two wins on end in Australia - a 1-0 win over Gold Coast on January 15 watched by a dismal 2,135, then a 1-0 win over Jets in front over 11,000 on Friday.

Its next game is against fourth-placed Melbourne Heart at Westpac Stadium on Sunday.