Nix v Heart, Thursday 27th Dec 7:30pm

i had to miss the whole thing due to work :(

that may not have been total football, but definitely total entertainment, for large parts we looked fantastic(until we crossed it, I would love to see the stats on how many of our crosses hit our players, anyway..) great game from the wee lads, best ive seen boyd play. we still look a bit unsure defending... 

but to come from a goal down last week against the top team last week, and from 2 down against the heart this week it shows the boys have a wicked fighting spirit, but id prefer if we didnt go down to begin with, but thats another story. 

very happy camper! 

ricki's thoughts on the game

http://www.foxsports.com.au/Football/wellington-phoenix-presser/video-e6frf423-1226544312491?subcat=1111112039253&site=FoxSports

time to give lochy a rest?( not just on the forums). try rowe for a bit to freshen the old legs up?

Absolute ripping game.....took some out of towners along and they thought the whole thing was absolutely thrilling. What else could you want...5 goals, an amazing come back....well done to the team.

I really liked the way they tried to play football...OK sometimes the execution or skill levels were not there but you could see what they were trying to do....and thats a big improvement. Sanchez gives the team another option...he's no Pirlo but he does do stuff in central midfield where there was SFA before. The youngsters were good again, Fenton was superb...shame that long distance screamer flew just wide, Boyd was OK but looked a little fatigued...tough on a 17 yo backing up in 5 days. Muscat is still struggling IMO. But overall they all deserved a pat on the back......not easy coming from two goals down an winning. 

Was discussing giving Rowe a go with my cousin on Christmas. Rowe may not be very good, but we came to the conclusion that its getting to the point where its almost worth a go. 

Bertos was immense. Worked tirelessly. Boyd man of the match. Fenton and brockie both strong games too. Lia had best match of his season. lochead was/is too slow for even a-league standards. Stein is now the forgotten man. Can't see Boyd, Fenton or brockie being taken out of starting line up. Might not even make bench when ifill returns.. 

So how did that work out?

*immature schoolboy giggles*

Cant stop grinning.Good shit.3 points

Bloody hell, that was a poor choice of wording! Trust you to pick up on it. 

Gutter is my middle name.

Trending ... coming third

Loved the YF chant 'total football, total football' when Gareth Morgan appeared on the big screen. Reminded me a little bit of when I went to a Chelsea game at Stanford Bridge. Nigel Clough was playing and Brian was manager of Notts Forest. Nigel fluffed something and the chant went up, ' you're nothing but a wanker, you're nothing but a wanker - just like your old man'. Not similar in the sentiment but in the apparent spontaneity....

I bet my mate a beer that Paston wasn't going to dive for that free kick.

And dat beer taste good.

WHY WAS THE PENALTY DECISION NOT A RED CARD IF HE HAD NOT PUSHED HIM HE WOULD HAVE HEADED THE BALL INTO THE NET  A AND I THOUGHT THEIR FIRST GOAL THE FREE KICK WAS SOFT ONLY A HAND LAID ON HIM AND HE GOES DOWN LIKE A SACK OF SPUDS

PPSMITH

why all in capitals?

It's early morning and I read that entire thing as if you were screaming. Don't do this to me.

it was a blatant free kick, durante stood on his foot

I watched this game with my Dad and he opened my eyes to so many things that I was missing.

For me, this was a poor Phoenix performance against an awful Heart performance. Rather than trash it, I'm going to put my thoughts in the form of questions so anyone watching the replay can see it for themselves

How poor was the crossing from Boyd, Lochhead, Sanchez and Bertos. How often did it go too long, too high too short or at the keeper?
How many corners from Sanchez failed to make it into the box.
How many times could the players have taken a shot but wanted to walk it into the goal. (fundamentally, take more shots, even if from distance)
The box was stacked with players. How many of them were static or lined up on the edge of the with no movement.
How often did our players arrive too early in the box on a cutback or a cross and were unable to put any power into what shots we did have.
How often did we give away dumb freekicks in stupid places?
When is a defense going to learn that Tyler Boyd will never go left and his left foot is just for standing on?
How often did our players received the ball but with a lack of awareness for the next pass (read this as opening the body up 90º for receiving the pass to make the next pass seamless, less touches, or see the next pass) In reference to this, how often did our players then have to turn and play back because they did not open their body.
How often does Fenton take the 'other option' than the obvious one that he should do.

I'm not normally one to put a post like this criticising a win but sitting with someone else who had a different perspective and listening to them as the game went on and see it for myself was interesting.
I do not think one person stepped up last night with the exceptions of Jeremy Brockie and Ben Sigmund and I've never given him kudos. Paston had zero chance of saving that even with a dive however I think had he positioned himself in the middle of the goal (he was off centre to his right), that combined with a dive may have got him there... food for thought? I'm amused at the praise for Lia. Wow.... We were poor across the park and its only through the ineptitude of a poor Heart team that we won. The reason why people still had hope of a win at 2-1 down was because the Heart were obviously that shit for all to see that had we not won....

If you think I'm talking rubbish, watch the replay and answer those questions above for yourself. The flip side to this is that if you missed the above, it looks like a good game cause we came back, scored 3 goals and dominated possession. Don't confuse 'entertainment and drama' with good football.

I can see why we are quite Leopold Method says we are a hard watch - its because we are.

Caps lock is cruise control for cool.

I don't want to judge you, your dad, nufc, bbs or any of the other pessimists on this forum, but what sort of football should we play that will actually make you happy?? We're not a top european side, we don't have unlimited resources, we have a quota of local players we have to play and I can't think of anyone better than the team we currently field.

it doesnt take a special effort to make a list of negatives about anything to be honest. try harder next time. how about of list of positive aspects:

How many times did we succesfully pass out from the back rather than resort to the long ball of games past?
how often did we pass it out from the back through to options in the midfield without 10 or so passes needed between the back 4?
leo, fenton and boyd were successful in beating their marker with almost every run
when those three looked to cross (quality of the cross aside) they looked to get past the first man rather than kick it straight into them as normal
were there significantly more passes attempted than any previous nix game?
60% possession!
passes along the ground!
good covering defense when heart were on the counter, david williams isn't slow and he was ineffectual to the point of being subbed
how many players were running forward when lia picked up the ball off the defense - this positivity continued all night
the nix were 2 - 0 down, and continued to play with their heads up and always looked good too pull a goal or two back (the win being a bonus)

I'm with djtim3000, basking in the win!  I want to feel happy with our win, not pick it apart.  6,410 enjoyed themselves last night

6411 and the moaners can all get fucked

I watched a few Spurs games recently and a number of times Bale crossed, and it didnt get past the defender. Sack Bale

I liked the way we looked for the win last night, had confidence. A number of players had very good games.

This is the Heart team that looked great in the Melbourne Derby last week, we made them look ordinary

I'm also wondering if that was the first time we have won from being two goals down? I can recall getting back to draw but not win.

bbs is a tosser

where are these rumours about bertos/millwall auckphoenix? couldnt find anything, are you being serious?

Noticed lots of newbies around me at the game last night - so was extra nervous at 2-0 down. But after the epic comeback pretty confident that they will be back. 

I think we can finally put the whole 'all we do is long balls' crap firmly in the Myth Bin now. We've definitely got a lot of problems - most obviously the huge space Manny and Lia leave in midfield - but we definitely have been better at passing out from the back; most likely because we have no target man to lump to anymore and Boyd/Fenton aren't going to win much in the air.

Do think Lochy and Manny need a rest if possible. Manny hasn't been himself this season - probably more focused on his newly born (can't blame him for that)

Not sure why people are complaining about how we played, we are never going to be Premier League quality, and we can only compare ourselves to other A-League clubs. I have only seen a couple of clubs play better football than we played last night, even Brisbane have resorted to long ball football, and we only hoofed the ball upfield once in the whole game!

Cracker of a free kick from Golgol, and Dura was just in the wrong place. It's not like the Heart cut us to pieces for the goals they scored, on another day neither of those would have gone in. 

Yes there are a few things that we could improve on (in particular our movement in the box), but there's no point whinging about the whole performance. If you want to complain about everything isn't Premier League quality (Jeff Vader I'm looking at you), then just go and watch the Premier League. 

All in all, we domintated Heart for all but 2 minutes of the match, and showed massive character to come back and win from two goals down. Time for some of you doom and gloom folk to learn how to be happy when we pick up good results.

Has Steve-O posted yet?

Also, night games at the Stadium are so much more fun than the Sunday afternoon games. The crowd is a lot more rowdy, and a lot louder. It's looking like the families that the Sunday afternoon games are aimed at are just not turning up. We should try having more night games and market them to the students and young professionals next season.

fenton MOM I hear. good choice, well done to the guy. great running all night, cool finish, i would have loved him to get that header rather than be fouled for the peno. 

still f*ckin smilin!

 Any team that comes from 2 down to win deserves a lot of credit.

We have three 'natural' footballers in Boyd, Fenton and Sanchez and these guys have made the game a lot more enjoyable.

I think the combination of Boyd and Fenton on either side of Brockie, and Sanchez right behind them could be fantastic. Looks like Ricki will stick with it for a while, I am hoping that they can get more and more used to playing with each other and develop an understanding with each other, they could be lethal.

Also helps that the rest of the team is getting the ball to them in good positions, and not by using long balls.

I think I noted at the time my amazement that I was watching a Nix game and the other team had resorted to hoofball.

The one thing that disappointed me was that Tony Lochhead is the best left back in the country. 

I was surprised how MH let the Phoenix take control of the game in the second half after going into the break at 1-2 up. Were they just sitting back trying to defend their lead or did the Phoenix just up a gear?

Was very pleased with the Nix fightback, as a relatively neutral observer. The fans deserved something to cheer and they got it. I think Fenton and Boyd too often try to beat too many players but they'll learn. They both showed good skills, which begs the question - are there not more like them out there in the ASBP who could go professional?

Bertos looked more comfortable on attack than defence, he still has it to beat defenders and get good crosses into the box.

I think Ian Hogg would reaslly add some wide play bite and can't understand why Ricki doesn't want him.

Would like to have seen Huysegems get a 20 minute run given the amount of possession the Phoenix enjoyed. Totori must learn to look up for options rather than just run head down at defenders.

Brockie's second goal was class, as was Fenton's curling finish.

Enjoyed the game. Good on you.