Nix vs 'Rapa - 14:00 July 28th - Masterton

65th minute substitutions

72 mins substitution

Is Bam Bam on the bench?  I hope so.

Expecting Ifill to run rampant.. hehe

+1

Want to hear what he's like and how he fits into the team! Looks good on youtube, but youtube isn't a good grasp.

Gah, would rather be there than in a lecture theater haha

Pav gets his second

I tweeted Robb to find out, but it seems he's tweeting from a phone, so I don't if he got it. I don't really understand twitter, but just use it for news updates. wolfman2010-07-28 15:48:21

( . )( . )

Cosimo2010-07-28 15:47:12

Pavlovic scores again 86 mins wolfman2010-07-28 15:49:04

hattrick for pav... guess hes definatly done enough to be signed now

92' Pav gets his hat-trick, fulltime 5-1 Nix wolfman2010-07-28 15:53:05

Right.. back to work, (or at least the triallist thread :) )

Did Rapa put out a First XI against the  second string Phoenix?

Twitter currently doesn't have the facility to send @-mentions to phone (something that needs to change ASAP imo), which means I only get them if I've set up Twitter to deliver their messages anyway - something I do sparingly on WRP. However Twitter does send DM's to my phone so feel free to contact me that way. And yes, it was 4-1 not 4-0, but not Tui-induced Glad I could help!

Absolutely brilliant day out. Was a hell of a setting, a club ground with a completely full temporary grandstand is a rural area, sun was out, crowd was definitely supporting Wairarapa when they did make noise, and chatting with friendly locals who (thankfully) had a good sense of humour and a tolerance for Mr_Incredible and his sudden onset of Tourettes Syndrome. Wish we had more time to stay and meet more of the locals and talk footy but ah well. 

ratings?

Cracking day in Masterton, huge crowd turned out (apparently schools closed for the afternoon, a massive group of kids surrounded the Phoenix players at full-time), well done Wairarapa. Rapa put out a pretty strong side - missing George B, but compensated by playing Pedro Garcias, Andrew Abba had some very good moments against a pretty young Nix backline.

Of the Nix players of interest:

Toto - a nice finish for the second and put himself about, but not with too much effect.

Pav - hattrick is always good, missed his first as was in the process of moving from one end to another, his second was with basically with an empty net after the keeper had hacked Pacific Ifill down, and third came from a cross which the keeper deflected onto Pav and which went in. Had another good reaction shot which was superbly saved, and showed quite a few good touches to involve other players and create dangerous situations. Would like him to be stronger with his back to goal for a guy his size though.

Prattley - was competent at the back generally, but didn't really stand out. Not much going forward.

Spragg - impressed with his cameo. Good technical ability, a decent turn of speed, and a good head on such young shoulders. Expect big things from him in the future.

Pacific Ifill (Reg Davani) - good couple of shots, found dangerous positions in the attacking third in the first half, faded a bit in the second. Couple of bad touches too, overall would like to see him against better opposition to get a better idea of what he's about.

Diego was disappointing despite his goal (had two awful earlier attempts) and didn't really do enough in the middle against this level of opposition (went off with a seeming injury for the last 10-15, meaning we finished the game with 10 players). Expected more from Corey Chettlebrough too. Luis Estevez (whoever he is) came on out wide on the right for the last 25, unimpressive. el grapadura2010-07-28 21:34:16

Glad you enjoyed the trip over guys.  Great atmosphere and also great spectacle.  Glad to catch up with Ricki, Ifill and Troy.  Great day all round.

great thread

cool to get the pre-season madness chronicled

actual crowd numbers would be good (if as high as the hints suggest)to promote the Nix as mid-week pre-season friendly fan favourites

damn CMON the 13th!!tigers2010-07-28 21:02:57

I reckon 2-3K crowd and a great atmosphere.

 

great for the growth of football

hats off to the 'Rapa-ites

One of the best parts was when Daniel had to explain the chant to Toto to give us a wave

A fantastic day out!

first of all I would like to extend thanks to 'the fever' for subsidizing our trip to 'rapa on behalf of everyone that was in the minivan.

Secondly, and most importantly, a BIG thank you to Bevan for driving us to and from the game. Bev, you're a star.

The game...

Crowd was good. very supportive of their local team, vocal at times (following fever boys' lead). good turnout for a pre-season(nix) midweek game. 2000 tops.

To me, the game looked a little scrappy as the trialists and youngsters were still finding their feet and struggling to keep the ball. Although there were goals for the nix at regular intervals, they also looked kind of scrappy. 'Rapa utd did seem to break the young nix defence at many occasions but failed to score (except for the only goal by Abba).

Individual performances/standout performers-

Pavlovich 8 - did amazingly well and showed some good skills. kept the ball well, passed well to include other players and let the attack build on really nicely. a deserved hattrick for him!

Toto 6 - did score a goal but did not show much skill (IMO) as everyone might have expected. We were waiting for those much anticipated killer crosses and dangerous through balls which were talked about when he headed downunder for a trial with nix.

Daniel 7 - he was actually pretty decent with passing and sometimes with the crosses. Opposition defence did well to restrict him.

Diego 6 - had many chances in the midfield to 'provide' or 'feed' the ball to strikers but didnt do too well. gave away the ball quite a lot. was taken out in last 10-15 minutes because of some minor sprain. he limped for 10-15 minutes before being taken off.

Hearfield 6 - decent positioning. read the game well and defended accordingly. couple of good runs forward.

Musa 7 - had a decent game as a centreback. Inexperience showed on the pitch however.

Spragg 6 - came on as a sub in the second half. has some nice pace and did okay for the time he was given. sh*te crosses.

Ifill needs no rating. came on late in the 2nd half. he was just as strong and just as efficient. good crosses

Leftback (Prattley?) 5 - Didnt think he was any good. unimpressive. Abba was able to get around him EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Devani (the other Ifill) 7 - had a decent game. worked well with Toto and Pavlovich to create some half decent chances. Awful finishing but passed well.

Goalkeeper McPeake 6 - Had a relatively quite game. made couple of decent saves. dint seem to keep the backline in control. (Inexperience maybe?)

Phoenix won. Score: Phoenix 5 (Pavlovich 3, Toto, Diego) - 'Rapa Utd. 1 (Abba)

Also, after the game when we asked for a photo with him, I asked him, "So howz it going?". to which he immidiately replied, "Muy bien!" (very good - in spanish). he seems to understand English at least.

Agree with most of your observations Ankit, but don't think Spragg's crosses were poor - he was hitting a very dangerous area with pretty much all of them.

Also didn't think Prattley was that bad - Abba was mostly terorising Jordan Cooper rather than Prattley. But yeah, he didn't really stand out, and didn't really offer much going forward.

Sounds like Toto really shouldn't be signed, to me.

If he was an English player and didn't have an awesome name would we sign him?

EG - i think you are right about the Prattley/Cooper. I might have mistaken one for another. (and NO, i wasnt drunk!)..

Spragg's crosses were 'alright'. he was crossing into dangerous positions ( almost everytime between the posts), but did not actually look up and see where his teammates were positioned inside the box. on one occasion he didnt even need to cross. there was a player just outside the box, unmarked, who could have poosibly scored. cant remember who it was (PacIF maybe).. But u r correct in saying that he is the one to be watched closely in future. (after all I too voted for him for Yoof scholarship!)

i would've

mixed signs from the sounds of it. we really dont want to sign up toto if hes gonna go all diego on us. I do like him though, so heres hoping for an improvement

i dont get what people see in toto that they like?

attacking intent