Player ratings v Heart

Well, from hanging on in the first half at times, to being disappointed not to win... the roller coaster.

Spoonley 8 Looked sound, great one on one save to earn us the point, calm under pressure

Vinnie 4 Often caught out, gave the ball away, better second half 

Boxall 6 Solid enough, cleared off line to also earn us the point

Dura 7 Kept his new defence lineup and the at times misfiring midfield focused

Rowe 6 Looked calm, did the job

Manny 6 Gave the ball away too many times, but was still making options to the last minute

Smith 5.5 Caught on the ball several times, earned us the pen

Biss 5.5 Good energy, almost earned himslef a goal

Fenton 6 Looked good going forward and made a couple of great runs tracking back

Iffy 5 Took the pen well, but little else came off

Stein 5 Seemed isolated

Boyd Little impact

Greenie - why didn't Ricardo get a run?????

Anyway, what do you think? Is this too negative considering what we were up against?

Boxall deserves a 7 imo, thought he did pretty well.

I thought Biss deserved a 6 and yeah Boxall up to 7. I'd even give Lia a 3, he was dreadful.

Boxall a 7
Smith 4.5 worst I've seen him play
Manny 5 massive fan but he got dicked today
Fenton 6.5
Ifill 5.5 bad by his standards

Otherwise pretty much agree. 
Bring back Leo! 

about right Oi Oi

I'd give Manny and Louis another .5 each

i wonder if Paston would have got been given an 8 for that performance?

i do think Stein, Iffy, Manny and Smith will all do better when they have a more experienced/stable line-up around them

glad we stole a point off the FFA

Yeh Ed you're prob right, I might not have given Pasty an 8 for that. I see at the bottom of the A League review of the game, the reviewer gave Dura MOM, so maybe he should have got the 8

If he played that well he probably would. Spoonley was one of our best players without a doubt.

I thought that Ifill played pretty well. He got the ball in some tight positions with a couple of defenders on him but he still managed to wriggle free and play a good ball. A few times he was facing our goal and quite far in our own half. His finishing was a bit off by his standards though. The penalty was good! 

Spoonley played well, was quick off his line, had good distribution, reflexes and seems a good shot stopper. Was exposed badly at that one corner, but apart from he kept us in the game.

Boxall was quite the rock, maybe his distribution could improve but maybe that's something to do with not having the options in front of him. An excellent goal line clearance (was it Dylan Macallister denied?).

I would put Boxall up a notch, and Rowe to a 5.5, and Spoonley to a 7

Impressed with the new lads, pity we didn't win in the end.

Lia was pants, so was Alex and Paul had an average game.  Think CloneMM got it spot on.

Biss, Fenton, Rowe, Boyd look good for our Nix/AW future.

Best game I've seen Spoons play as well, he's deffinately matured since '07.

i thought ifill just looked rusty, he'll be back, along with some match fitness... 

Lia was understandably rusty having played only 45 mins pre season. He was pants in first half but did improve markedly in second and combined pretty  well with Fenton going forward  on a couple of ocassions. Ifill definitely looking rusty and still short of a gallop. Hysegeems struggled p front all by himself and basically received no ball all game and just spent his time trying to close down the Heartless back four. 

All in all an excellent effort and amazing how depth has improved in just twelve months. Remember this time last year we were struggling to get 13 players together.

Good to see Ifil getting back and taking on more of the defensive workload than normal, towards the end though he looked dead on his feet, had no ball control.

Durante was mega, at times was all over the pitch, going box to box and trying to make stuff happen, incredible job keeping everything together. 

Even though we played a 10 man Heart with the fitness and inexperience of our players they should have still had the advantage over us, so it was a job well done.

Thought Stein was rubbish, lone man and not once did he get anything resembling a header in.. For a tallish player he is the pox in the air!

Yeah Stein isnt exactly a targetman, but we are still playing high balls to him. Brockie looked decent last night taking down long balls, but the solution needs to be more ball on ground.