I thought was a very clinical performance, and I think the lack of complacency in the team was a huge part of that. I would hate for us to think we can sweep these teams away, I think we should be aiming to score 5+ goals against each side, especially at home. A few points I picked up on during the game:
- Leo's delivery from corners was spot on. Hopefully he can continue this for the Nix, he consistently put the ball into a dangerous area, which is very different to what he has been doing for the Nix in past seasons.
- Kosta seemed to be involved in every single attacking move, and looked great on the ball. We were managing to get the ball out to the flanks for an overlap really well, and the balls into the box from Lochhead, Kosta and Leo were almost always great.
- I really hope Totori isn't as selfish when playing for the Nix as he is when he is playing for the Solomons. He was incredibly greedy tonight, and was exactly the same in the Solomons. Hopefully he realises that there are players better than him (i.e. Ifill) who he should pass to, rather than being one of the only attacking options like he is for the Solomons.
- The quality of the OFC refs is incredibly poor. Right through the game, there was many interesting decisions, especially when the Assistant ref didn't know the rules properly. There were many offside calls that were wrong, not to mention that shocking decision not to award a corner when the Solomon keeper fluffed the ball and clearly put it over his own touchline. Some of the fouls given were puzzling too, there were a few times when the ref would let a very hard challenge go, only to pull up a much softer challenge less than a minute afterwards. Consistency through the game would be nice. If OFC want to help aid the development of the game in the Islands, they need to focus on referee training much more than they have been.
- The White Noise were on form, some of the chants came through really well on the TV. Stand Up for the All Whites sounded even worse than it does at the RoF though!