Phoenix vs Adelaide

On a sidenote, how magic was the bus to the Kings? Big ups to Jag and the Eejit for maintaining the yellow army chant!

Watching the replay this morning I can't believe Ognenovsky didn't see red for his assault on McKain.  Compare that with Brown's soft yellow in the first half and you have to say the ref was a muppet. 

gaarrr! so close!!! i thought we ran the game from the time costa scored. magic lil header too. this makes sh*t real interesting for the final game!!! melben in melben. thats a f**kn big ask!!

Great effort from the team, took a visitor from Ashburton to the game and he loved it and the atmosphere, he commented much better than going to watch Crusaders.

Just on the Brown sending off, the ref might have been a muppet but he clearly signalled with the early bookings that he was going to be a pillock and so Brown should not have been surprised that pulling back the Adelaide player earned him another yellow. Plain stupid by Brown.

It was a yellow, but a needless one on our part. If I remember rightly, Brown and Dodd were quite a way from goal, it wasnt so desparate a situation to warrant a foul when you are on a yellow already. He doesnt seem to be a great thinker IMO, and now he is lost for the last game, as if we are not short enough already

Yep that was bloody brillant.

On the crowd issues others wer talking about: I really believe the crowds will go up next year. newzealandpower2009-01-19 11:50:12

For the person who asked, the crowd figure was 8241.

That was one of our better crowds this season so i dont think that applies to yesterday.

The Brown foul was quite silly. It was obvious that Dodd would outpace him but he tried to go shoulder to shoulder with him when Dodd was already a couple of yards ahead.

Compare us with CCM and Newcastle - not Melbourne. If compared with CCM i'm pretty sure it's still unfavourable.

Replay on at 4.30 this arvo on SS1, quite looking forward to having a look at this one

 The first incident from Tim Brown had no contact, I am not sure how anyone here can honestly say it was a yellow card? Even the commentators said it was a very soft yellow.

 If the ref is going to card people for intent then he sure as hell should have carded half of the Adelaide team, and the w**ker who raised his boot to McKain should be sitting out two weeks.

I have to vent anger know. I'm very pissed off. What chance did we have, from the start it was 12 vs. 11 then 12 vs. 10 I mean come on.
When the refs in your pocket its hard to lose.
Something really must be done about the quality of referees in the A-league. And FIFA and the FFA really have to get over their whole thing about never doubting referees and begin questioning them at least on occasion. And can we please get over this thing Football has against video refs. They could be brought in so easily and obviously not involved in every decision, only to verify calls relating to possibly cards, reds in particular and penalty shots.
Perhaps video refs are too far but something has to be done to ensure the quality of referees, to protect teams from the likes of that useless ref we had last yesterday!

anniversary weekend so people maybe away and the face that it was pretty windy would put a lot of the wellington fair weather crowd off besides that dunno why no one showed up

Loads of people showed up - We must still have the biggest crowds in the league when you go by percentage of population.
8000+ from 350,000 is 2.3%
compared to Melbourne's 20,000 on Friday from 4 million population - 0.5%

For some reason, some seem to think that we'll get the same amount of people will going to the match as they do in Aussie. If we had Melbourne's population and 2.3% still turned up we'd need a stadium to hold 92,000 each week




Compare us with CCM and Newcastle - not Melbourne. If compared with CCM i'm pretty sure it's still unfavourable.

What about all the Manawatu supporters including me

Just watched the replay. Ogre's tackle on McKain was crude - which just shows how inconsistent the ref was.

McKain was best Nix player on the park, hands down. Kwasnik surprised with some good touches when he came on

amem to that! Like ya said, there was no contact. there shouldnt have been any yellow!!
At one stage in the game the ball hit the ref cos he was looking the other way. wtf?

Best chant of the night "you'll never make the airport" freaking funny boys!!!

And that slam tackle on McKain? Made me see RED!!! 
Still amazing last home game. Played all the football. Well done Nix.

StopOut2009-01-19 20:26:09

Having seen Brown's second booking on TV earlier, I am even more frustrated than I was before, that was NEVER a booking, and was probably only his 2nd foul of the game! Some really poor decisions yesterday throughout the 90 minutes.

Over the last two seasonsI have never bothered to comment on the referee's coz i figured that it always evens up in the end. But the last few games I have become more irate....yesterday's referee was absolutely incompitant. How Ognegovski didn't get a red for a blatant off the ball shoulder charge is beyond me. In the EPL he would have got a red and a long ban! Timmy's first yellow was crap...he never touched the guy. The Warriors had big issues with referee bias. Looks like the same is going to happen to the Phoenix.

Not enough to pick him. He did go for Reid thoough

I don't think the ref was biased, just out of his depth. If he hadn't had such a malignant influence  on the game I would maybe even have felt sorry for him. How that "tackle" by the ogre didn't get him sent off defeats me. Re Daniel playing some through balls, yes he did, but I think that the ten man team just doesn't have the legs to motor up and down the park at the same speed continuously, maybe that's why there weren't the runs into the box.  Great game though, magic crowd (mostly), apart from the pillock behind me that made so many negative comments and could have done so much better than every Phoenix player I nearly asked his name to nominate him to replace Smeltz next season, still, bums on seats. 

McKain is next in line if Reid or McKay get injured.

gallery up if anyone has pics

Woohoo...  dial-up on my mobile. 

Link?

A league thread

I thought to turn round the 6 - 1 drubbing into a creditable draw with 10 men on the park was a great performance. Jag2009-01-20 08:33:50

I disagree. Mulligan is quality and class.
How ever in the phoenix he never clicked for some reason.
Which is weird cos he plays for All whites with half the phoenix anyway?
Intergrate him, his crosses would prove a useful weapon.

Maybe because he's absolute rubbish?

Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I do remember watching us play Waitakere and thinking "Oh, Mulligan's class and quality are standing out a mile against this vastly inferior side".

Watching replay. When was that supposed red for ognenovski? What min

Nevermind, just seen it. Its a yellow.