You are probably right though at 17 McCarron is very young. Wonder if he's seemingly jumped ahead of Foord (2 years older) on ability, or fact Foord was injured for a long time.
Yeah I expected Foord to be in goal in the 2nd half of Wrexham and was surprised when it was McCarron.
Now I expect McCarron so will likely end up being Foord!
Piper is out Maybe GK Payne Hughes Sheridan LKH Retre FRC Nagasawa LBS Ishige Armiento coochiee
Jayden Smith also unavailable. Shame for him. Presumably against a 3rd tier Victorian opponent it's a back 4?
Payne, Piper or LK-H to slip in beside Hughes with very young CB Munro on the pine? Not a bad way for Payne to work off some rust, and a first run around playing at CB maybe.
Wellington Phoenix squad: 5. Fin ROA CONCHIE, 6. Tim PAYNE, 7. Ifeanyi EZE, 8. Paulo RETRE, 9. Hideki ISHIGE, 11. Carlo ARMIENTO, 15. Isaac HUGHES, 17. Gabriel SLOANE-RODRIGUES, 18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD, 23. Luke SUPYK, 24. Xuan LOKE, 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA, 27. Matt SHERIDAN, 29. Luke BROOKE-SMITH, 35. Matt FOORD (gk), 40. Eamonn MCCARRON (gk), 42. Fergus GILLION, 8. Mac MUNRO.
Eamonn McCarron makes a little bit of history today as he becomes the youngest goalkeeper to make his competitive debut in Wellington Phoenix club history!
He's got about 6 months over Keegan Smith (I'll do the math on this later).
I'm hoping its just a fitness thing. Us being pre season and nunawading playing more regularly. Hopefully they'll tire out come the second half and if we use our experience to keep the ball better we can pounce.
I'm not watching this and thinking this coaching style is going to get us anything this season. We have the players to win this game comfortably. I would have winning these matches as a minimum kpi.
I'm not watching this and thinking this coaching style is going to get us anything this season. We have the players to win this game comfortably. I would have winning these matches as a minimum kpi.
Agreed. The may still be pre season but this is actually a competitive fixture. No excuses for this shark.
Imagine how Eze must be feeling, moves across the world after being sold the dream of how well we get scouted, now he's watching his team get smoked by a bunch of amateurs in a suburban ground in front of 200 people.
An amateur side in 41st position in the Victorian football league pyramid is looking the better team so far.
Exactly im normally very optimistic about anything Phoenix but this is so uninspiring. Thank FK its not on free to air to put a heap of people off. Go WAHNIX.
They are in a relegation battle in the third tier of their local league... we are sharke!
We were no where near good enough last year, and nothing today so far shows me we will be any better.
We have not attacking game plan... we are so desperate for a spark it's embarrassing.
Our two Jap imports are bang average... even if they did have pre season legs, how much professional experience do they have??
Yea, I can't see us win anything with Ishige and Nagasawa. They have no attributes I'd rate. No speed, physicality or finishing ability. They always play the safe pass and/or end up on their arse... shame
We've got no ability to drive the ball forward down the left with Lukas Kelly-Heald playing LWB. There's a noticeable difference compared with Loke down the right (and in the previous game where Loke was playing down the left). Would prefer to see Loke at LWB, Payne at RWB and Kelly-Heald at LCB if we're going to play three at the back.