More quality football, another swag of cards but, for the first time this A-League season, no points for the Wellington Phoenix.



After a one-all draw with Gold Coast United and a 2-0 win over the Newcastle Jets, the Phoenix were beaten 1-0 by the Perth Glory at nib Stadium last night. Coach Ricki Herbert was far from defeated at fulltime, just a trifle confused about how his team could play so well and lose.



As well as finish a match without 11 players for the second time in as many games.



Having had Nick Ward and Tim Brown sent off in dubious circumstances against the Jets, with Ward's red card eventually rescinded, the Phoenix lost Manny Muscat in added time for a crime which escaped his coach.



"I'm not here to be critical or anything... but I watched a game last night [between Sydney FC and Brisbane Roar] and there were no cards, I don't think, issued and some pretty cruel tackles going in. I don't know, again it just baffles me, the timing of it,'' Herbert said of Muscat's second yellow.



Brown received his in similar circumstances in the previous match, with the result all but certain and time virtually up. His crime was a few seconds of time-wasting while Muscat's was an innocuous foul.



As unlucky as Muscat was, it was the Ward and Brown decisions that Herbert couldn't help revisiting last night.



"Here's a good example. It took four minutes to get a player [Perth's Liam Miller] off the pitch'' he said.



"A stretcher comes on, the player doesn't go on the stretcher. I don't know what people at home are thinking [but] it takes us 20 seconds to pass a ball to someone last week and we get a card for it.



"I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me.''



Neither did the match result. The Phoenix totally outplayed the top-of-the-table Glory but conceded a soft 33rd-minute goal, to Shane Smeltz, from a free-kick and didn't convert their own chances.



"Five years we've been coming here [and] I'm not sure we've ever played as well,'' continued Herbert.



"I thought we were totally dominant tonight and, yeah, I'm kind of lost for words. I thought we were very good, second half especially, and had good goalscoring chances in the first half as well to comfortably get something from it.



"But one set play and we get punished for it.''



While victorious coach, Ian Ferguson, said his team were glum, despite recording their third win on the trot, Herbert reckoned his would take a lot from their performance, especially given how many first-choice players weren't available.



"I'm very, very pleased with the brand of football we're playing,'' Herbert said.



"If I look at the group I had today, I'm very pleased with what I saw.''



It was hard not to agree as he reeled off names like Brown, Paul Ifill, Lucas Pantelis, Vince Lia, players who would walk into his best line-up.



Encouragingly, though, Alex Smith had a fine match in midfield and Daniel continues to show that he's no spent force either.



Brown will be back to meet the Melbourne Victory at home on Sunday, while goalkeeper Mark Paston will be closer to contesting a starting berth too. Herbert said Paston hadn't recovered enough from his rib injury to play Perth and the whole selection situation was complicated by how little stand-in Tony Warner has had to do.



"What's Tony Warner made? About three saves in two games?,'' wondered the coach.



"That's making it hard to make decisions because it's not like Tony's making a million saves to kind of keep himself in the frame. They're going to challenge each other all year but that's pretty healthy I think.''



Perth and Brisbane lead the competition, on nine points, followed by Newcastle (6) and then the Phoenix on four.