Well, that was painful. I just sat through 94 minutes of "Garbage".
Tony Lochead: Played well below his potential. He looked ok running the ball up and croosing it in (on the odd occasion) but as Left Back he failed miserably at holding Adelaide up out wide and stopping the crosses. Overall a night he should soon be forgetting.
Jon Mckain: Played OK. Was a damnsite better than Lochhead and Mulligan. Did well at attempting to defuse Adelaide attacks however overall the Nix' defence was sh*te tonight.
Andrew Durante: Pretty much the same as Mckain. Ok game nothing special but still contributed
to the defences piss poor performance.
David Mulligan: Well. Boy oh Boy! For someone we had all anticipated as a great player. He certainly did not look great. He was average at best. Failing to stop people run down the left flank into the box or whip it in. Overall he did not even nearly live up to expectations.
DEFENCE: The Defensive effort was absolutely pathetic tonight. It was garbage and therefore needs to be thrown in the bin, put out on the curb, and taken away(forgotten). I do no believe that this performance is something we should worry too much about as I think it was uncharacteristic of what looks like a great squad however something needs to be done.
Michael Ferrante: Would have to be placed in my Top 3 or 4 tonight however that doesn't say too much. Deffinately looked OK at times and seemed to be the only one running at the start which is good to see. However as a midfielder he did not fulfill his job.
Richard Johnson: Similar to Ferrante however he wasted alot of ball, with some really silly shots. I do think we don't shoot enough as a squad however he got a bit stupid shooting from 40 odd metres out. Tonight should be quickly forgotten.
LeiLei Gao: Lazy. Looked ok at times however when tackled or skinned he just stopped and gave up and made no attempt at regaining possesion. Worst of the three mid.
Midfield: Garbage. Way to many percentage balls through/over. Wasted alot of ball.
Leo Bertos: Pretty average really. He was a slight glimmer of light in the team however failed to produce anythiogn special. At times he looked threatening with his speed however would of liked to see him create/execute an opportunity.
Adam Kwasnik: Lazy, seemed to be lacking the will/drive to win. Did not play to his potential. Was glad to see him replaced early in the second half.
Attack: A bit boring really. Never really got/created the chance to do anything special.
Karl Dodd: Much better performance this week. When he came on he was a spark although tried to be a bit tricky once or twice overall it was an OK performace considering the circumstances while he attempted to get a consolation goal.
Vaughan Coveny: Like the commentator said when he got on the field he is one man that is willing to poor his heart and sole into a match for the pride he has in his side. Good to seem him pressuring Adelaide a bright contrast to the rest of the team. Would tie for Man of the Match with Dodd in my opinion.
Daniel Lin Cortez: I was glad to seem him come on as i thought his normally charasmatic personality would bring some hope into the team, it didn't. He had an OK game good to see him running hard when he first got on but the depressing atmosphere created by the rest of the squad eventually dragged him down.
Substitutes: All looked better than the rest of the team. Atleast they tried and seemed to push their hardest even to no avail.
Overall tonights game really did hurt to watch. We failed to string any continuity together. There was sometimes a glimpse of a chance but never really much hope. I was dissapointed to see that the majority of the team failed to try and would not have minded loosing so much if the score wasn't so embarasing or if they had gone down trying hard pushing themselves to the max.
That's my opinion I guess. Don't get me wrong because I am fully behind the phoenix however it is very hard to be positive after a match like that. Ricki needs to sit them down and have a good chat because a repeat of that performance would be catastrophic.
I hope that the boys can go away from this having learn their lesson and be ready to come out firing in a couple of weeks against CCM.
Man of The Match: Vaughan Coveny and Karl Dodd tied.
