IN FULL VOICE: Yellow Fever fans celebrate a good result at Wellington's Westpac Stadium, which currently ranks equal seventh for pitch and equal eighth for atmosphere out of 10 venues.

Westpac Stadium's pitch and atmosphere have both ranked poorly in a survey of visiting A-League captains this season. But Phoenix captain Andrew Durante has come to the stadium's defence. Sam Worthington reports.

Phoenix skipper Andrew Durante is surprised by a survey that rates Wellington's Westpac Stadium as one of the A-League's worst venues in terms of both its pitch and atmosphere.

After each game the league asks the visiting captains to mark the stadiums out of five, and out of 10 venues Westpac is currently equal seventh for pitch and equal eighth for atmosphere.

Only Newcastle's Ausgrid Stadium and Perth's nib Stadium are rated as having a worse pitch, while only Gold Coast's Skilled Park fares more poorly for its atmosphere.

Yellow Fever fans chant "we've got the wind, the rain and the Phoenix ..." and Durante reckoned it was those often unpleasant conditions that may have skewed the rankings.

"There's some games where the wind's howling and it's pouring with rain and visiting teams just want to get out of here," he said.

"If someone is handed a form, you think about the rain, you think about the wind and you probably give it a lower score than what the actual pitch deserves.

"I guess it's just the fact that other teams don't like coming here."

Melbourne's AAMI Park (pitch) and Etihad Stadium (atmosphere) were top of the class but centre back Durante leapt to Westpac's defence.

"I think the pitch is always one of the best in the league. Etihad's always going to be the top one but when you consider the crowds we get, when 10,000 are in, it's a great atmosphere."

Westpac turf manager Brett Sipthorpe said the eight Rugby World Cup games played at the stadium impacted on the pitch quality for the Phoenix home season opener on October 16.

"When you've got eight games of international rugby on it as a lead-in, it's not going to be as smooth as what it probably could be," Sipthorpe said.

"That would have been a contributing factor, playing the first week after the Rugby World Cup and it was below the usual standard to be honest."

Durante said he took filling the paperwork out seriously after each away game and believed it was a worthwhile exercise.

"It's to keep the standard of the league as high as possible and you don't want to be playing on pitches that aren't up to standard.

"It ruins games and I think it's done quite fairly around the league but the weather here probably deters people from giving higher scores."

Of course poll results are not at the top of Durante's list of concerns as the Phoenix languish in eighth place after nine rounds of the 27-game regular season.

It puts Saturday's home game against the fifth-placed Perth Glory in the must-win box.

Durante likes their chances, given Perth will be backing up from playing Sydney FC tonight.

"It obviously plays into our favour that they've got to back up after a tough game and it's definitely three points for the taking against Perth," Durante said.

"We're going to be confident going into that one, especially back at home."

The talk of the league has been Sydney ending Brisbane Roar's remarkable 36-match, 15-month unbeaten streak with a 2-0 victory on Sunday.

Durante, who played for Sydney in the Asian Champions League this season, admitted he didn't see the upset coming.

"Someone was going to eventually do them but I was surprised by the scoreline and how early they picked up the goals. The run is over now and the hype of it all can stop."