R1 vs Melbourne City | Sat 8 Oct | 7.35pm | Westpac Stadium

Sorry if its already been asked but is sky not showing the Phoenix this season?

http://www.yellowfever.co.nz/categories/wellington-phoenix-discussion/topics/sky-coverage--2

Thanks for that.  :-)

Wellington Phoenix squad: 1.Glen MOSS (gk), 2.Jacob TRATT, 4.Roly BONEVACIA, 5.Ryan LOWRY, 6.Dylan FOX, 7.Gui FINKLER, 8.Alex RODRIGUEZ, 11.Hamish WATSON, 12.Adam PARKHOUSE, 13.Marco ROSSI, 14.Alex RUFER, 17.Vince LIA (c), 20.Lewis ITALIANO (gk), 21.Roy KRISHNA, 24.Logan ROGERSON, 26.Jack-Henry SINCLAIR

Melbourne City FC squad: 1.Thomas SORENSEN (gk), 2.Manny MUSCAT, 3.Josh ROSE, 4.Connor CHAPMAN, 6.Osama MALIK, 8.Neil KILKENNY, 9.Nicolas COLAZO, 10.Anthony CACERES, 11.Bruce KAMAU, 12.Nick FITZGERALD, 14.Daniel ARZANI, 18.Paulo RETRE, 20.Dean BOUZANIS (gk), 21.Ruon TONGYIK, 22.Michael JAKOBSEN, 23.Bruno FORNAROLI, 26.Luke BRATTAN, 27.Fernando BRANDAN 

Referee: Peter Green

Yay, Peter Green. Task just got made much harder! What happened to the sunny day prediction from the met service?

Might just sneak the game in before that front comes thru?

So why is Bonevacia not playing for the Curaçao national team? He could be playing alongside Leandro Bacuna and Cuco Martina, among others. I'm happy he's playing with us this weekend, but it'll be a shame when he doesn't get a callup to the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup. 

well that's an interesting squad and bench!

So weird to see Manny in the other team's squad

Tratt's got quite the jersey to fill!

Forecast not looking great. Hopefully it clears up before the match

Surely the bet of the round is both teams to score in this one

Hopefully we score more than them.

4-3 to us is my pick.

Plenty of goals and a win would be a great for boosting home crowd figures.

Any predictions for crowd numbers for this game?

Valeo, 4 -3 to us. Paying $81 in Aus. Maybe worth a dollar or two.

Crowd prediction: 6950

Metservice has strong winds and evening rain but Nix have given out thousands of junior memberships so I'm going to go 8,643

10,000

Isn't the break even around 10,000?  If so that would be the minimum needed.

A few goals and a win would certainly help for next time.

Crappy weather?  It's Wellington, aren't people used to it?

I moved to the coldest city in Australia 18 months ago and crappy weather doesn't worry me any more.

Really looking forward to the game. 90 mins that will fly by

If we get 10,000 i'd be ecstatic. Can't see that happening, though?

Have you put a couple of bucks on your 4-3?

Yeah, $5 haha. Just in case.

Nice and good luck. Think you had to put money on too :

4-3 is more likely than the favorite 1-1 paying a measly $8.

I'll be in for 2 or 3 high scoring punts and many something on MC giving BR a touch up tonight.

I also put $5 on a 2-2 draw with MV + Bris with Maclaren and Berisa both scoring.

I see you've done this before :)

I imagine that would be at high odds, but not too high.

I've spread the love with some multis and pick the score luckfests.

Tomorrow night 3-3 with 10 to go is good value entertainment for $5, win or not.

That's how I look at it anyway

3-3...and 5876 crowd.

So pumped for this then...... My normal crew cant come as Palmerston North Marist is having their prizegiving. Send word around work, FREE TICKETS GET IN, no one bites. Send an email to some blokes I have been playing twilight and Futsal with again no one can come.

So its going to be me and 4 tickets so far showing up

Upper Hutt U19 tournament.

Taupo junior tournament.

Last weekend of school holidays.

7.30pm game.

Terrible weather.

>8k croud.

Plus not a full squad, even 8k is optimistic.

People out of town excuses? Check

School holidays excuse? Check

Game time/day excuse? Check

Weather excuse? Check

Really is there always going to be excuses why not.

Would love 10k at the game but can see 6,000. Although seeing Finkler in a Nix jersey could boost the numbers. (Hope so)

There's a difference between an excuse and an explanation. These are all circumstances beyond the Phoenix's control. They just are.

Oh and for the record that was meant to be <8k croud. I don't think we'll crack 8, just too many things stacked against us this week.

>$8k croud.

How much greater, 20,000, 50,000?

Except we literally always seem to have an excuse. It becomes a little bit old, honestly.

When will we just admit that we don't quite have the support we need quite yet?

Very true that there will always be an excuse not to go.

If you get no takers, go through turnstiles 4 times and scan each ticket.  Helps with the metrics

It's NZ \ Wellington -  we will never have the support we need until we get to the finals, same as the Hurricanes ie. only sell out the Semi final and final. 

crowd will be about the usual 6k, due to no All White's, general feeling of non footballing fans that Phoenix are sharkte, Sky (and others) not promoting it and weather

If we have a few wins to start the season then the crowds will get up to 10k+ but we lose a couple the glory hunter fans (which mist kiwis are) won't turn up

Oh and the score will be 2-1 to Melbourne City - only because every season Ernie has been here he has started the season with a home 2-1 loss

Game Day - Let's light the fires and burn the tyres - Fire Up you lot!!