Nix vs Heart, Dunedin, 3rd March 4.30pm SS1

Bertos had a good game and I think the switch with Muscat simply caught Heart unawares (John Aloisi admitted as much after the game). But one swallow doesn't make a summer. Surely we haven't forgotten already why Bertos found himself at right-back in the first place?

Bertos had a good game and I think the switch with Muscat simply caught Heart unawares (John Aloisi admitted as much after the game). But one swallow doesn't make a summer. Surely we haven't forgotten already why Bertos found himself at right-back in the first place?

Maybe a question with Muscat of why today?

Also the club seemingly pushing youth (players/ things stated), not so today?

and today, thank goodness, Vinnie did a pretty good job of tying up the middle

Three observations;

Enormous kudos to Greeny for having the courage to break the mould; playing players in their natural position, playing only one DM and starting Waffles. Most of all for instilling in the players the need to value the ball, look for the easy pass, show and have more patience in the build up.

Great credit to the team for getting up for the game and, as a unit, raising the intensity and passion.

We have the core of a good side, with the injection of 3 or 4 quality players we will be able to compete with the best.

A well deserved and morale lifting (for us all) win.

MUCH better performance today, especially first half. Poor finishing still a problem, and don't even talk to me about those damn corners!!!

But, a win, a far superior performance to Wednesday, and feeling a bit more optimistic. 

Always thought the crowd was going to be very average, there were only 5000 v Brisbane last time in Dunedin and we were doing not too badly at that time.

Don't lie. And, we've won 6 games (only one of which I've seen in person - I can't comment if I've not seen the game) so it's hardly a regular occurrence.

Yay just finished watching, 3 points and well deserved at that! The boys lifted, what I was hoping for on wednesday and generally typical for a caretaker manager's first game but better late etc.

1st half was a great watch, unlucky not to have put it away by halftime. Don't think it was the heart's best performance but fuck 'em, we wanted it more, moss was all but a passenger.

Colosimo, that was serious twat behaviour. Look he scratched me! Fuck off.

 I don't get the whole 'omg, why didn't Ricki try Manny at right back' thing.  He did.  Against the Mariners.  It was fucking disaster.

Why did he only try it once against the top team when the entire team played terribly?

 600 odd posts in this tread. Surely we lost?

Two reasons.

1, Because in a poor display he honked more than anyone.

2. Because for most of this season he's been the only thing close to resembling an A-League quality midfielder in our whole squad.

Listen to this idea, which might blow everyone's mind - perhaps Greenacre chose his team specifically to counter the opposition? Unlike Ricki who seemed to just send out virtually the same team and use the same tactics regardless of opposition. Thus, perhaps Bertos and Manny will swap back next week?

Yeah the second point is what I thought the reason was. Correct me if I'm wrong my understanding was that Leo was converted into a right back so they could free up manny in the midfield.

Agreed

Your member name deters.

You can't make an omelette without neutering some cats...

The first 25-30 minutes was fantastic, much more like the Nix of old. Players taking people on, trying to play with pace rather than holding the ball up to look for an easy pass. In previous games we haven't been able to make the most of the fast starts, this time we got our early goal.

But like most other games this season, the intensity dropped off a lot at the end of the first half. The second half wasn't much better and if we were against a better team, I do think they would have run us down. Luckily the Heart are terrible outside Melbourne.

Not trying to be negative and take away from some very good efforts by some of the boys today.

Good night. 

Two chicks, one omelette?

I made a bit of noise around this when the AW game was awarded to Dunedin about crowd sizes but I don't think I expected it to be this low

This a very disappointing crowd but one of the sad truths of NZ football is if a team isn't winning NZ fans can be decidedly fair-weather. The recent home Phoenix crowds in Wellington haven't been much better. It's hard to get NZers to turn up to watch football unless it's a heavily promoted high profile game. Across the ditch the A League attendances are flourishing - 18,000 at Central Coast Mariners and a similar boisterous crowd to see MV thrash Newcastle.  

NZF must be very careful about staging important AW games outside of the three main centres. Auckland is the only NZ city with a diverse ethnic mix and big Pacific population so I really don't think an important Oceania game should be staged elsewhere. Dunedin has a big stadium and a small crowd like this looks awful on television.

bring back the ring of dirt

The Nix love Dunedin. 

*NSFW alert*

Clearly:

+1 for Hamilton getting a game next season.

Dunedin's had its go. Shit crowd so don't deserve another one.

The owners of Wellington Phoenix have wanted the A League side to play attacking, possession-based football all season.

In Dunedin last night, they got their wish.

The A League's bottom club looked a shadow of their cellar-dwelling selves, passing the ball confidently and attacking incisively in beating Melbourne Heart 1-0.

The score line makes it sound like a close match, but Phoenix dominated from the opening whistle and seldom looked troubled by a below par Heart.

"Victories have been few and far between and it is such a good feeling coming off after having won a game. It hasn't happened often enough this season," Phoenix captain Andrew Durante said.

"We said before the game, we've got nothing to lose, let's just get out there and go for it and row everything at them and don't fear anything. It was a really good mentality out there and we really put them under the pump... It was a shame it was only 1-0, it could have been four or five."

The win marked a satisfying close to arguably the most difficult week in the Phoenix's eventful history.

Seven days ago foundation coach Ricki Herbert was in charge but yesterday he was watching somewhere on television, having resigned on Tuesday morning. 

With his assistant Chris Greenacre now at the helm, his message to the troops had been simple, Durante said.

"We have always had some type of distraction this season and it has been unsettling for the players.

"The departure of Ricki during the week was sad, but the message was we had to put it behind us and move on. We've had a good win, now everyone can celebrate. Everyone wants to see attacking football like that, and that was a little glimpse of it."

The Phoenix came out all guns blazing, with Jeremy Brockie hitting the crossbar after just two minutes - a sign of what was to come.

In an all action first half the Phoenix rattled the woodwork twice more and saw defender Ben Sigmund come agonisingly close to scoring with a header which bounced down then over - not in, to the net.

It was no surprise when Brockie did open the scoring - a sweet volley after a surging run and cross from Paul Ifill.

The only surprise was that the Phoenix did not score more - their play certainly merited it.

Key to the victory was Greenacre moving Manny Muscat back to right back and giving regular right back Leo Bertos licence to roam in midfield. He posed a constant threat to the Heart and relished his return to a role higher up the park.

"We started working on it as soon as we got down here. It was nice to return to natural, familiar surroundings. I enjoyed it today.

"It's been a tough year and I have enjoyed playing at the back, but today felt more natural and it was to get more forward.

"It's good to get a win, they have been pretty rare is season."

Star striker Ifill was another happy Phoenix star, pleased to cap a dynamic display with the assist for Brockie's goal.

"It's nice to know you can still play the game: it's been a long time. We set up differently, it took them a while to get used to it. We worked on it all week, and it's nice when something you work on like that comes to fruition."

I've been pushing, in my own quiet way, a game in Hamilton for ages. Would be a winner I reckon

Yesterday's game was the FFA's baby wasn't it? They seem to have had a HUGE fail in the marketing dept on this one.

It seemed like there were a lot more than 3k people at the ground. However, when we were not chanting, there was almost complete silence in the ground. 

Great effort from the 40ish people in the Fever Zone, highlight for me was chanting 'Gareth Morgan's Feline Army' with Gareth standing in the middle of the Zone. 

Not sure about that. Pretty sure they 'hand over' the running of the game to the 'host' team. Although I understand the Council underwrote the game, so the Phoenix didn't to lose money on it.  guess the question is who should be doing the marketing for a game like this.  FFA, council, or Nix.

Who did the marketing?... Ahmad.