Elimination Final v Melbourne Victory | Fri 3rd May | 9:50pm | Four Kings

Independent A-League and new Phoenix license.

Boys tried hard, kudos. At the end sloppy errors costs us the game.

Was at the game. Great spirit from nix fans. Fun times. unfortunate result.

Can't complain too much about that result, unfortunately. We probably had the upper hand for most of the first half, but didn't make it count. Victory played like a class team in soaking up that pressure then taking their chances clinically when they got them. Great effort from the Nix, but Victory just had too much quality.

More than anything, I think this reinforced the need for certainty around our licence situation. Victory's owners have obviously shelled out for two of the best players in the league - Toivonen and Honda - and they proved game-changers tonight. If we seriously want to compete, we need a secure licence in order for our ownership group to be willing to make the serious investment needed to field a championship team. Until we bridge that gulf in class with the top teams, we're going to stay a mid-table team IMO.

Expected outcome but we gave it  a good shot especially in first half.  Agree that Fenton gave us more momentum down right when he was playing and that we havent recovered since.  Good journey.

also squad depth- Toivonen counters and plays in Kosta. We counter and play in Lowry. Not his fault, but he shouldnt be starting finals football for us.

It's one thing for a skipper to be complaining, another for an entire team over every decision. 

Re-watching at the end. Muscat has no class. Yapping at Kopa, what a muppet. Evans, well not his best night- fairly home town ref. Missed challenges on Cacace and appalling call on Williams for the free kick. We need a better, deeper squad. Loss of a right wing back shouldn't have put the breaks on our season so much. That's on Rudes too- he signed Gulley and he obviously wasn't up to the job (unfortunately).

This one gets filed with his worse games and the run of losses that cost us finals football in Wellington. Rudan has to remain behind Ernie and Rickie in the pantheon. 

Point in the second half when Singh had them briefly crapping themselves- but an unlucky deflection and Toivonen is all class. Sheridan hasn't clicked with the squad or given us much off the bench, tho he's been a total pro and Singh was our last card. Wish Waine had been in the squad.

Cosimo and C-diddy- forum throwbacks!

I thought we were the usual energetic but somewhat untidy Nix. Need to sign some class for next year, incl Krishna I hope. 

Difference was Honda and Toivonen, plus our usual problem breaking down teams that sit a bit deeper and more compact on us. And our own mistakes. 

Best team won, but an entertaining game. And we've been entertaining all year. 

So a good enough season finishing 6th. I'd like more, but they were a good watch this year. Mostly. 

I still struggle with the Welnix view that a team with Honda and Toivonen, vs Mandi and Kopcynski, doesn't have a significant advantage. Class scores goals and wins big moments. Singh/Krishna provided a bit of that for our goal. We just need a bit more of it in the squad. Imho

Different day we win that. Problem isn't the imports you mentioned. The problem is right wing back when we had attacking momentum. Krishna is a good enough striker. Williams, Singh and Burgess could have been good enough creative players. 

Don't think the gulf was so vast. We didn't perform to potential.

Playing at home woulda helped that.

We nearly deserved a result. Nearly.

Rudan has done a remarkable job in a year, and I get the feeling that if he had next season as well we might be more than a "nearly" team. I just hope the super-quick appointment of Ufuk Talay means we can continue with the momentum we've built. I think we can and will. That's surely everyone's goal. 

Thank you Mark Rudan, you've given us back our pride, our belief and our heart. COYN!

Mark Rudan has done a fantastic job in one season. He has proved that not only is there a lot of local talent but they can also play attractive football. We have never had a coach that has consistently played winning and attacking football. Sure we could have done better but I for one always looked forward to our games every week. Previously it was a case of how many are we going to concede this time.

To all the doubters over the years who said NZ did not have the talented youngsters to compete, what do you reckon now. I have always said it is the coaches we don't have and Rudan has proved that. Lets hope we can keep most of our players and get some decent defenders.

RUDAN OUT!!!

I hate Kevin Muscat. He's my number 1 hate person in football. There's miles down to number 2.

I hate Melbourne Victory in general. Looking at the owners yesterday, sitting there grinning. Of course they should be happy, they're winning after all. But I just find the entire club ugly. W@nker fans, ugly team logo, ugly playing kit and a grade a pr1ck of a manager.

I still remember the day we beat them 3-2 in Melbourne (I was there). I nearly cried with joy, beating those t0ssers.

Hate 'em!

What a pathetic response. 

Sloppy errors always cost.

An understandable response on the day.  I am sure that on any other day Danepak may nod curtly at Muscat when passing him in a dark alley.

Enjoyed being a fan for large swathes of the season and there were breath-taking astonishing moments. 

The way he gave Kopa a spray warrants this. Have had a lot of respect for the Victory, but Muscat is a leg-breaker with no respect and I lost my 'yeah, but he's also...' yesterday.

We can hammer CCM, Brisbane, Jets- but still respect them as a club and remember their great teams and show them respect when we win. 

Yeh, maybe. Always good to hear different perspectives. But we've played them four times this season, only once when they had their top starting side iirc. We couldn't beat them. And any other season we'd not have been so fortunate ourselves with injuries and unavailability. So I can't see the idea that on a different day we'd beat them. We had four different days and didn't. Even when they were missing starters. 

So to be able to beat them and the other teams enough get to top four/top two level you need to strengthen the team. Agree re RWB. 

Happy if we grow skill locally, but Honda and Toivonen made a significant diff last night. And made no mistakes. One of our imports cost us a goal. I am not putting all this on Mandi and Kop. I just think this squad did close to as well as you'd expect and was fairly fortunate with injuries. And we were mid table. Just considering the differences needed to do better. 

I enjoyed the season and we played good entertaining footy, with Kop and Mandi def part of that. But we were mid table. And not unexpectedly got knocked out in the first round of playoffs. That's the thing. 

I remember at season beginning Rudan saying visa players needed to be the best in there position in the league. You could put Kurto in that category. Taylor was solid and would make any A league starting team. Our other visa players had there moments but also had there limitations. Be interesting to see if Mandi, Kopa and Sheridan stay for next season. 

I think Kopa grew into the role very well.  Mandi I think is getting too old in the tooth, too slow and has failed to get to fitness this year.  

The jury is out for Cillian.  It's no accident that he hasn't been starting, because he has never found form.

Season positives:

- The team performing above almost everyone's expectations. Rudan managed to mould a fairly limited squad into a very competitive unit.

- Fantastically entertaining football with more top class goals than in any Nix season.

- A team playing with genuine spirit and self-belief, something that has been missing at this club for far too long. 

- Roy taking out the Golden Boot with 19, yes 19! goals. Never thought I'd see such a stellar achievement from a Nix player. Great backup from Williams too.

- The young Kiwi contingent of Cacace, Singh, Rufer, even Fenton and Sail all playing out of their skins and reminding us that there is talent galore out there. Credit to them for stepping up to a new level, and again to Rudan too for man managing them and ridding this team of the dreaded kiwi cringe. For me this has been the most exciting thing this season.

Negatives:

- The frustration of seeing us crumble at the finishing line with a home playoff and massive crowd at the RoF there for the taking. So many awful, awful mistakes from experienced players. But hey, in the end I reckon we ended up exactly where we deserved to be on the table so no use crying over spilt milk.

- The Rudan sideshow was such a distraction at a crucial time in the season. It should've been all about the football, instead it was all about him.

This, more than anything else ruined the season for me.  We really dropped off when it started coming to the surface.  Should have aimed for Adelaide, not the Vic. Even more so should have been a home game but the Rudan stuff stoped that.

Was really disappointed at the things that I heard being said about Rufer at four Kings last night. Maybe they were just casual fans who have preconceived ideas formed about the guy from 2 seasons ago, but I thought last night, as was the case with this whole season, that his performance was superb. He's still so young but his passing in my opinion was far better than Mandi's. Plus I think with the exception of Krishna, there isn't a player in the squad that uses their body to shield the ball and ride a challenge like he can. Super impressive season from him 

And the most yellow cards.

Sadly we seem to have a habit of some people slagging off Kiwi players.Not sure why people seem to expect more from them. Same as dont get people carrying on about import players we DONT have a history of getting the best import players yet people for whatever reason seem to expect us to get guys of the quality of Honda etc. Hasnt happened in the past and unless there is a dramatic reversal cant see it changing.

I agree with DJ. Rufer was immensely impressive for me this season. He, Fenton, Cacace, and to a lesser extent, Singh, were our kiwi standouts (latter only because teams figured him out a bit in back end of season - he ought to be better next year for the experience. As should the others too, which is a very comforting thought).

Re: Rufer's yellow card tally - yes, he needs to improve on that next year. But, my recollection is that a substantial bunch of them were him essentially taking a hit for the team when someone else had made an error. 

And some due to the supreme awesomeness of A League officials. 

Stop trying to simplify it. I watched every game and he deserved every card he got. 

For the record, I wasn't suggesting he didn't deserve them. Just saying that he often had to commit a cynical foul because teammate fudgeed up beside or ahead of him.

before this season  no other club would have looked at Rufer... I'd say half.would now. 

Great season from him, just needs to hit the back of the net.

Never liked him, was a nasty piece of work in the UK and he carried that on in Australia. During the game (before his spat with Kopy), my wife who knows nothing about him or the Victory asked me “who is that criminal looking bully”.  Summed him up perfectly.

Mandi and Rufer were the first names on the team sheet for a reason. Eventually Burgess was trusted, but we had no one else there to tackle, keep possession and distribute. We were in front of a large hostile crowd and an unsympathetic ref- some of the team under performed. As Rudan said- they scored from our mistakes. They didn't walk through our defence.

And our top two imports were Taylor and Kurto. Kurto saves at 2-1 and we couldve piled pressure on. A friend who doesn't regularly watch thought he had lost confidence after the first goal. I think our weakness was our squad depth, not a head to head of top players.

It's football! And yes, I hate Melbourne Victory, just like Man Utd supporters hate Liverpool. 

I actually bumped into the kn0b in a pub after Caulfield Guinea's 2009. He was there with Nick Ward. I asked him what he thought about Charlton Athletic (he ended Charlton's Matty Holmes career back in 1998 - Matty sued him). 

'I fudgeing hate them', was his response.

My response was 'Guess what, we fudgeing hate you too'.

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1998: Charlton midfielder Matty Holmes needs four operations, a steel rod inserted in his leg and skin grafts to repair an ankle damaged by a tackle from Muscat, then with Wolverhampton.

Holmes, who was initially told he may face amputation, agreed to a $600,000 settlement at London's High Court after claiming the tackle ended his career.

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Muscat did almost exactly the same in an Australia - France friendly game just a couple of years later after the Charlton game so it was not a one-off.  At some point he was voted the most hated player in English football.

Second and third names after Krishna, surely.