Player Ravings v "Victory"

Welll well well. Sublime result

Mossy 7 Another grand game, even when they had a shot he never looked like anything could get past him
Boxall 8 Excellent game. Looked like a strength rather than a possible weakness to exploit. Should have scored though.
Siggy 6.5 Good job
Dura 7 Good job too
Manny 7.5 Got nutmegged early, but that was about it, otherwise fine
Reira 8.5 Excellent in first half. Tards managed to keep the ball away from him second half a bit more. A commander.
Lia 7 He and Reira bossed the midfield
Kenny 7.5 Wow, now we can finally see why he's a Costa Rican international! What a goal. Worked his butt off
Carlos 8 Made a huge impact, made them look silly, so calm in possession. Great game.
Stein 7.5 Another classy game, neat goal.
Boyd 6.5 Made some excellent runs
Ridenton 6 Kept the momentum going
Brockie 7 It happened!! Lovely goal and tenacious for the assist. Super sub!

Ernie 9 Well done! You got a top performance out of the boys!
Ref 8 Got it about right. Well done!
Crowd disappointing, but well done YF for the atmos. Shirts off looked so much fun! "We've got the best Muscat in the league!"
What do you think??

Could quibble on a half point here or there but pretty much how I saw it too.  Small crowd but they did get into it.  Holiday weekend did not help.

Was a great night at the RoF.

Agree Riera was fantastic, Boxall too. I think you're being very harsh on Tyler Boyd (who I have previously not had much time for, but he was outstanding tonight). Christ, even Vinnie Lia played bloody well!

Was worried of the thought of Boxall at RB previously but he was outstanding tonight. Riera must be close to signing of the season in the A-League.

fair assessment - Reira has to be one of the nix bet finds EVER! and I'm Lia's biggest detractor but even he stepped upped immensly last night and made the defence's job easy.

Good to see a relatively new ref control the game well and not get sucked in to the usual crap. 6813 crowd was por, and there is no excuse - holiday weekend? whatever there were plenty of people aroiund at the pubs etc - why weren't they at the game - did they know about it? the club for mine has to get a 4 for this weeks marketing effort - time to employ some mainstream media to get people through the gates.

Lia has played well for months

A major part of why Riera is going well is because of Lia 

That's why Muscat is at LB, Lia does the job better to help Riera

and for all his lack of passing that's a top ball for assist on CH opener. 

Lia and Sigmund cop a lot of flack but every team needs workers like them. They make other players perform better. 

^^ "doing the dog work" is the common term

Good assessments. Lia's throughball on the outside of the foot was excellent. He really is flourishing under Merricks guidance. One wonders what he'd have been like without the influence of Ricki. Has an engine that just keeps going. Riera has leaped on in huge bounds. Hope his contract is air tight.

Hard to separate them really. Although Siggy at 6.5 is a tad harsh. Thought he had a top match (and I'm from the "Siggy's past his use by date" brigade). Well done that man.

Those scores are all way way too low. We just smashed the Victory 5-0 and you only give two players over 7.5

No way were Siggy and Boyd only worth 6.5. They both had great games. You could argue that Boyd starting instead of Brockie had a major impact on the game. Right from the kick off he was making good runs and getting in behind their defense. Traore is one of the best wide defenders in the A-league and Boyd had him under loads of pressure all match. Boyd is a way better overall footballer than Brockie and will only get better. Brockie is better as a late sub as it suits his style when the play is more open and loose. Siggy had a great game.....he is now not dashing out of the line and resists lumping the ball down the field.

LOL all those who said Kenny was a dud and comparable to Totori.

 He has now scored two stunning goals in the last two games. I really hope he and Carlos make the WC....would be great to see on the team sheet at the WC...Kenny Cunningham, Carlos Hernandez, team = Wellington Phoenix.

Stood beside Boxall at the after match signings.....he is a beast. Easily half a head taller than Dura and Siggy. For a big man he is really quite an athlete.....and a good footballer as well. 

Our defense as a unit was superb - we stayed compact and never really got pulled out of shape, which against the Victory is impressive. Hard to separate out individual performances in the backline when they worked so well as a group. Riera does such a good job screening the back 4 too.

Yeh was going to say harsh 6.5s on Siggy and Boyd. Boyd worked really hard, but doesn't have the finish Brockie does yet. For mine I'd keep Boyd starting and Brockie off the bench for now.  edit: shoulda read as far as autin10- completely agree.

As for Siggie- thought he was Sig-normous, even played some football. When Louis comes back he's going to have a hard time getting his spot back off Boxall, or perhaps we should play Boxall up front or on the wing...!!

Hope there is over ten thousand for the next home game.

Agree with ya ratings except for Siggy. Was much better than 6.5. Crowds will turnup - 5 goals at home previously is hard to market. And despite top away win to WSW, we were still second bottom. Will still be second bottom if Adelaide get points tonight. We still have lots to do to restore the club's cred with the floaters. That win last night was a huge start though. 

agree with austin10 as well as most of the praise in multiple threads

No one had a bad or even average game. Initially I thought perhaps muscat as he wasnt mentioned much, but that's often a good thing for a defender and he must've done well keeping an in-form kosta under wraps

everyone's saying it but riera, what a revelation. The most impressive thing for me is his development week to week, not just the fact he performed straight outta the box when we bought him. 

Lia's my boy. I've never been one to criticise him but I wasn't a fan prior to this season either. Now I'm a fan. First yellow of the season last night, that alone sums up his re-birth.

Very impressed with some of ridenton's movement and touches last night too, can see why merrick is giving him chances. And I always thought boyd was special from when I first saw him play, but I was worried he wouldn't come good and push on. Merrick seems to be getting that out of him, great stuff.

Someone in the match-thread was complaining about undies needing washing, spot on. My couch could do with a steam clean.

Crowds have to turn up, this was huge. The chanting was next-level last night YF, well done. Loving the length of the Yellow Army chanting, I want to hear 30 minutes straight next time! Go on!

We Want 7 was awesome all night too. The missus was like 'why are they saying that', I informed her she had a short memory... we were both there when that chant was born, and it'll never get old!

Yeh, just to put it on record (again):  I've not been a fan of Lia, but this season's Lia is a keeper (though ideally with a bit of a salary adjustment, if he is on inflated rates - as the rumour goes).

I've been pretty uncommitted about whether Kenny would be a success and early days wasn't looking great.  But the last two games from him would rate at least up there or better than many of the non-marque imports in the League?  Is that fair?  It's only two games, but long may it continue.  As others have said we got value from all the imports last night, probably the first time this season.  And I would say they are all in the better levels of non-marque imports in the League [Edit when they are playing as well as last night.].

My only concern is that with everybody playing so well, where do you go to improve the team for next season?  lols.  Nice problem to have.

And good young kiwi players starting to shine.  Congrats to Welnix on their philosophy/policy and on Ernie's increased efforts to bring it into reality.  

Stein and Boyd were both excellent. OK Boyd didn't score but they were both really good at closing down the defenders and forcing them into mistakes that gave us turnovers in dangerous parts of the field. Victory were hell-bent on playing out from Coe and our forwards really made it extremely difficult for them. Stein in particular must have been absolutely stuffed last night, or he has a monster engine on him. For me he was pushing Riera for MOM.

Boyd caused them a lot of problems, unlucky not to score but his effort was up there with everyone elses.

Reira and Lia have really solved our transfer concerns this season. I'd keep Boxall at right back and perhaps use Fenton as an attacking player when he recovers next year. As far as transfers go, I think we need one more centre back, especially if Boxall is a fullback and if we wanted to get crazy a marquee striker would be nice, if only for numbers they bring through the gate. But lets be fair, we don't need new players now. We have an excellent squad.  

A couple of injuries in the midfield & we might not look so flash

Loui will need to fight hard to get back into the squad now, Boxall has been phenomenal. Love the way he just walks through players with his size. Even the likes of Archie who routinely carve up the league, he just couldn't compete with Boxall last night. Totally shut out.

Also amazing is how after so long at the club, we're now seeing the best football Lia has ever played for us.

Stein looks to me like his fitness has improved absolute heaps over last season. You could always tell he was a quality player, but he was just too damn slow, to be blunt. Not sure if it was the move and some of the club issues he had before coming down here, but i don't think his fitness was ever where it needed to be last year. Looked to be running in quicksand. 

That has obviously changed. Love the dude. His technical ability to go along with being healthy and fit...watch out.

How well would Louis or Boxall go on the other side of the pitch if Muscat gets injured, or if Reira gets injured and Muscat covers him in the midfield?

Plus there will be an effort to get Ridenton right up to speed as viable cover.  I presume that was part of the reason for Carlos' early sub, apart from his injury.  You'd think we'll take ever opportunity we can to give him game time. 

Anytime Archie Thompson is THAT anonymous, someone has played a very very good game...

I dont recall our defence playing that well for a number of games, seasons. They really played for each other and the team overall. All 5 of them, including Moss.

When are we going to see Rufer?. Looked OK preseason but no sign so far. Ernie obviously keeps tab on him so he knows best. I wonder if with Kenny and Carlos out next week we could see him on the bench