Bookies rate Phoenix as no-hopers

Wellington Phoenix are copping their tag as A-League wooden spoon favourites on the chin but captain Andrew Durante says they are determined to prove the bookies wrong.

The Phoenix are the most unfancied team on both sides of the Tasman ahead of the fifth A-League, which kicks off in little more than three weeks' time.

Centrebet and New South Wales' TAB Sportsbet have opened the Kiwis as $3 and $2.85 wooden spoon favourites, respectively.

New Zealand's TAB has been just as cutting, rating them $28 outsiders to win the league. Surprisingly though, they are paying $12 more than any of the other nine teams, including newcomers North Queensland and Gold Coast.

The Phoenix did finish one win away from a playoffs berth last season, but bookies have clearly reacted to the lack of goal-scoring depth.

In the wake of Shane Smeltz's departure to Gold Coast, the release of Greg Draper and retirement of Vaughan Coveny, the Phoenix have added only one striker, Englishman Chris Greenacre.

Greenacre is the only Phoenix player to feature in the golden boot market and is at $67 in New South Wales. Smeltz is second favourite at $8, behind Melbourne Victory's Archie Thompson.

Durante believed his team should be rated higher but felt being written off would only play into their hands.

"I think it's a positive, it doesn't affect any of the players at all, we're happy with it," Durante said before the Phoenix departed on a two-match tour to China.

"When I was at Newcastle the season we won it, I think we were in the top two to get the wooden spoon that year, and I think the boys actually liked that, being written off.

"It gives us another reason to prove a point. At the end of the day we're aiming for the top six, and once you're in there anything can happen."

FANCY THAT

TAB odds for A-League winner:

Melbourne Victory $3.75, Brisbane Roar $4.50, Sydney FC, Gold Coast United $7, Adelaide United $10, Central Coast Mariners, Perth Glory $12, Newcastle Jets, North Queensland Fury $16, Wellington Phoenix $28.

- © Fairfax NZ News