The Adelaide United contingent aside, happy people weren't in short supply at Westpac Stadium on Friday night.

For those there for the football, the Wellington Phoenix's 4-2 win was the reason for the broad smiles. But for those members of the Phoenix organisation charged with keeping the club in the A-League, Friday was all about the 13,654 people who'd paid to get in.

Welnix chairman Rob Morrison has given every indication that the Phoenix will be granted a lengthy extension to their A-League licence by Football Federation Australia [FFA]. That doesn't stop the alarmists out there from predicting the club still faces impending doom, though.

The Phoenix remain determined to gain a 10-year licence extension, while the FFA are adamant the club deserve only four. For the time being there's nothing wrong with occasions such as Friday's, when the Phoenix illustrated just what a valuable asset they can be to the league.

"It was a magnificent crowd - 13,500 - that's our largest crowd for a Wellington regular-season game in about four years," beaming Phoenix general manager David Dome said.

"Ernie [coach Ernie Merrick] had the boys absolutely humming, [it was] a fantastic end-to-end game, six goals, Adelaide score and we go down the other end and score right back. What an exciting game, you can't ask for anything better than that.

"The FFA have been saying to us that we need to get the crowds up and the first two [home] crowds [of the season] have been disappointing, but that crowd today was magnificent."

Whether their bums are on stadium seats, or simply on couches at home, Morrison has said the Phoenix need more people to watch them. Six thousand had become about all the Phoenix could expect to attend games at Westpac Stadium and even two weeks of advertising and urging could attract short of 14,000.

But that, allied to the fine football the team played, was still enough to make Friday a night to remember.

"The challenge in front of Ernie is to play like that every week, the challenge in front of the management side is to have crowds like that every week," said Dome.

"Sometimes they go hand-in-hand....and if we do play like that every week, why wouldn't people come back?"

The Phoenix had gone a goal down in the third minute. But strikes from Roy Krishna and Roly Bonevacia soon had the home side 2-1 up.

The match highlight came in the 51st minute when Bonevacia buried at shot from 25 metres to push the lead out to 3-1. A Bonevacia run and cross then enable Matthew Ridenton to make it 4-1, before Adelaide scored a late consolation goal.