Pre-season 2013/2014 - vs Phoenix B - Ring of Fire - Sunday

Speaking of injuries, the petone game last year was when Ifill picked up that nasty injury...

Petone is a nice turf, quite fast, had a late game there last night and was incredibly skiddy as there was abit of dew on the ground. could possibly be a tad dangerous for what i can imagine would be a relatively fast game , but the early kick off time will hopefully avoid the dew situation

Well, well, well. 3-3 all with nix only getting the third from an Ifill penalty and another Moss error giving Lower Hutt their 3rd goal.

Anyone have the line-ups and any thoughts on how individuals went?

Joel stevens got a run for nix as did te atawhai hudson wihongi and a guy called clayton lewis???

Starting was; moss fenton siggy dura caira stevens lia muscat ifill huysegems and rufer

Ah lewis is young olympic kid. Guessing stevens rufer lewis wihongi hudson are trialling for FSE

erm Ifill class, fenton looked ok but their big no 10 caused him issues. When Lia came off the team looked worse. Dunno tactically lots of running around like a five aside but a bit rubbish.

The Hutt boys kept up with them for pace and got stuck in.

Hernandez and Leo in the stands, but never saw them.

The blond kid looked ok  who hell he? Sorry very tired so mind was wandering tonight.

Interested to know what you thought of Caira

Ferk me  Moss, Fenton, Siggy, Dura, Ciara, Lia and Muscat will probably be our starting defense......I know its off season but you would think they could defend against an amateur local team...3-3   not good

Lower Hutt City AFC goals came from:  Nathanael Hailemariam, Hamish Watson and Kade Schrijvers

Well that was really hard to watch.. 

All 3 of their goals came in the 2nd half when we were subbing on lots of FSE trialists. Still not good though, they were definitely the better and more enthusiastic team in the 2nd.

Just a few initial thoughts. 

Still not impressed by Caira. At all. He didn't even seem to want to be there. I was quite impressed by Fenton though at RB. Lovely work to beat his man and cross for the 1st, and showed some urgency to get back when needed. Also thought that Adams was good again when he came on, and to me looked better (at this level anyway) than Siggy did. 

Our best period of play in the last two games, was definitely when Carlos was in the middle calling the shots. Muscat doesn't convince me as an answer in midfield, and neither does Lia, especially in the style Ernie is trying to play. We definitely need some options there before the season starts.

On the positive, Ifill still has some class left. Our 2nd was a touch of real class from him. Stein looks good, but worryingly gets isolated up the top quite often (other than when Carlos was feeding him). Rufer looks worth a shot at FSE, though not the finished product yet. Joel Stevens looked quick and lively, but running a little aimlessly at times. I struggled to keep up with who was who in the 2nd a little bit.

Was Hernandez playing ?

Started something like this

                                    Moss

Fenton        Siggy                       Dura                Caira

                     Muscat             Lia

Stevens                                                   Ifill

                            Rufer

                                    Huysegems

Finished something like

                                          Moss

Hudson-Wihongi     Adams       Dura               Caira

                         Lindsay               Gulley

             Ifill                        Lewis               Rufer

                                        Huysegems

Hudson was a left footed central midfielder i thought. Bit of a change. Must be 18

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/8983106/Nix-draw-with-Lower-Hutt-City-in-pre-season

The draw was no reflection of Quality. 

No Carlos.  Okay to watch but little variation from short passing game.  pitch quite bobbly and slow tho so affected game.  Fenton did well as did Stein(header!).  Ifill good as well..great control and touches to set up his first goal.

Rufer did well at times IMHO.  Others not so.

2nd half lacked desire from Nix..but it is training only.

Thoughts on Gulley?

Some do or die tackles from LHC - think made 50/50 balls LH's

Hope we get to see a game against Wests, some good young talent in that squad

did rufer try to play everything one touch?  He did last week and then Merrick spoke afterwards of him being a little nervous which made sense.

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what time is the game 2m?

So another howler from Mossy I think I read? He's starting to make me nervous.

The irony in people wanting Moss in and Paston out last year..... Paston retires and now nervous about Moss.

Its pre-season in a training game.

I believe the Germans practice penalty misses to get them out of their system.

Sorry, but that theory doesn't make any sense. ;) If you commit howlers under no pressure,  then it isnt exactly good for your confidence

Some confusion regarding CCM game in Rotorua. 

Not part of CCMs pre-season schedule: http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/centralcoastmariners/news-display/Mariners-preseason-plans-finalised/71446

Even though lots of media in NZ as recently as last week reporting on the game, as well as the ability to buy tickets to the game: http://www.ticketmaster.co.nz/phoenix-v-mariners-holiday-inn-rotorua-new-zealand-22-09-2013/event/24004AE286251A60

Member on 442 followed up by asking CCM official twitter and this was the response: https://twitter.com/CCMariners/status/362351807227367426

I can only guess CCM have pulled out of the game, after their Indonesia tour was confirmed.