R1 vs Newcastle Jets | 7pm Sun 11th Oct | 12pm Backbencher

I have to agree with what most people are saying. But I think the McGlinchey critisicm is a bit harsh. Yes he does turn in circles a lot, but when there's 9 white shirts in front of him and only 3 yellow ones I can't really blame him for holding the ball up and not trying a miracle ball. Last season I thought he was one of those players who you notice more when they're not there which to me shows just how important they are.

I thought in terms of the overall game there wasn't a whole lot wrong with the performance, just the lack of finishing, but I have no doubt that keep playing like that then the goals and wins will come. I reckon our away form will be pretty good again this season as opposition teams won't park the bus when they're at home, so there'll be more space to exploit and to work with in the final third. 

Just popped in to read the match thread, sigh and shake my head a lot. Never disappoints.

Are Nix replays available online? If so, where would I find them? Cheers.

Almost glad I wasn't able to watch the game last night by the sounds of things.

Apart from all the moaning and groaning were there any standouts apart from Roly and Riera? Do these two ever have a bad game?

pfft you guys love it really - people either complain about the team or the forum - because complaining is fun!

The only one who doesn't like complaining is Dairyflat, probably cos he is mashed on mushies most of the time

So you guys didn't sigh/make a negative comment at the game when they scored, then?

The match thread is just a permanent transcription of that.

Same old excuses though, isn't it? There is always something on/the time isn't good enough.

Wanderers pulled 14000 on a Thursday. Even CCM pulled 8 (though they did have a better timeslot)

Unfortunately the reality of the situation is that the Wellington sporting public are largely apathetic and we haven't done a whole lot to change that.

dbl

In a city of (conservatively) 1.5 million... if you compare population sizes we got 23k vs ther population... in the sharktest of timeslots.

Yep and how does 14000  the wanderers got in Sydney stack up against 6000 in Wellington. Not that bad I don't think just don't get why were are continually measured against teams in much larger cities for attendances. May be same old excuses but schedule a game in Gosford on a Sunday at 7.00 and I doubt they would do much better.

His decision making is poor, and he doesn't move the ball quickly enough, which is what is needed of him in that role. There's nothing wrong with turning, but it needs to be productive - Roly's turns invariably opened up space and drove us forward. McGlinchey's literally killed any momentum we had. At least twice in the second half Roly played the ball to McGlinchey centrally in the attacking third, looking for a quick return ball as he was running into undefended space. towards the top of the box. Both times McGlinchey firstly controlled the ball, turned away from Roly, and ended up losing it. Roly was visibly frustrated both times.

Another time he got released on the right hand side of the box, with a defender trailing him - he had two options in the box for an early low cross towards the top of the six yard box, but he went back on his left, then quite literally stopped and stood there, made a pathetic attempt to beat the defender, and I think the whole thing ended up with a throw-in for us. I was literally cringing as I watched it.

...and laughing... cringing and laughing.

Krishna was renowned for having the hardest shot in the ASB so how come he now chooses to take the pen with a patsy side-foot pass to the corner?

Probably, if I'd had the energy.

In the first half of last season yes.  Since then no.  He receives the ball in good positions but he's completely forgotten how to use it.

His drop in form co-incided with our post Asian Cup meltdown last season and based on yesterday it's still there.

So. All that time and effort spent on getting Wee Mac from CCM and we should have left him there?

No.  He was excellent for 2/3rds of last season.  We just need that back.

Was that you lot up the top?

I thought Doyle did pretty well for a guy that nearly did not make the cut. Could do better but I did not expect him to do as well as he did, under the circumstances. 

I miss Boxall, and by now I miss Cunnigham.

Thought McGlinchey and Roly went around incircles so much I thought they would screw themselves into the ground at onepoint.
I thought Fenton was very ineffective with his forward possession.

I was far more worried about our pop gun attack and slow predictable build up going straight at a central brick wall ofdefenders, then I was about defensive inadequacy.

Sometimes we just need someone to have a dig. When we are int he attacking third we look too determined to set something up, and by the time we do the box is full of defenders.

And one of those shots can be the difference between W-D-L

yeah we have lots of skill, but not much Berisha-like determination to score

That was a good effort geeing up Rows 21-22, definitely had run out of steam .. it did actually prod us into a lusty chant... Ignore the ones who gave you the finger, they were probably just trying to remember how to pull their fingers out of their arses

well to day Upon reflection, my comments are that we certainly look good passing the ball backwads and forwards across the ground. Left side to right side and back. That we didn't make any distance with it is open to debate. I felt we needed someone to take charge or responsibility and shoot ffs. What are we waiting for? The perfect opportunity to shoot from 6 yards out? I did not think the jets offered anything in the first half and yet they scored. Their second goal in the second half was the same although it was a much more even half.

Carney is a right Twit. He shoild have gone before the first half finished. He went down quicker than a $2 hooker. Their goalie was crap, if only we had had not a striker playing for us...... wasted and lost opportunities.

having not seen the game, I'm finding all this "why didn't we shoot?" Talk strange as we had 14 shots,10 of which were within the penalty area. Seems like we shot at goal rather a lot? Quality shots too, rather than low percentage speculators from outside the area. 

From my (admittedly drunk) memory, we would have a great shot just outside the box, but pass to the side so we could send it across the goal.  But by the time we did that we went from 1 or 2 defenders in the box to half their team there, so when we took a shot after that they were all over us.

Not only that, but Ernie's repeatedly stated that he prefers an approach that gets you smaller number of high quality chances, rather than shoot on sight type situation which leads to lots of shots, but many of which are little more than waste of possession. This is how we've played under Ernie, sometimes with success, sometimes not so much. But that's how it is under Ernie, it ain't gonna change while he's the manager.

The shot (?) from Blake Powell that went past the face of an empty Jets goal (in the first half) was an example of misunderstanding an opportunity, and perhaps lack of individual mettle, rather than bad luck or wayward aiming. To me it seemed he was not sure what to do with the opportunity and was still in two minds even when kicked that ball.

Pretty much. I wouldn't even call 14 shots (10 of which were in the box) a small number of opportunities. 

That was our clearest chance of the game (apart from Roly's) - considering he was brought in as a pure goal scorer (if he doesn't finish chances, what is he there for exactly?), you've got to be disappointed he didn't nail it.

I agree with Ernie's mentality surrounding shots from distance - it's okay once in a while, but by and large it will not work out in the long run if you constantly take pot shots from distance.

The fact is, we had far more chances than Newcastle and our build up play was far superior. Unfortunately it either slowed down in the final third, or we crossed the ball to no one half the time.

I was really suprised that Powell started over Appiah. I've liked the progress i've seen from Appiah.

He should have done better, at the stadium I thought he may have hit the far upright. The ball did bobble a bit before he hit it, probably the most uneven Westpac I have seen for a while.

Ernie undermined that with a statistics I can't remembered the exact data but it said something about the line that for shooting inside the box you have three times more the chance to score than from outside. So we are getting enough chances, but our converting range is off. Other teams having the same problem Germany (v Georgia) had 28 attempts (inclusive blocked shots) to get 2 goals this morning. There is hope.

I wouldn't either, which is why the complaints are all the more surprising.

 A Doyle theory: He was great last pre-season and had a poor season. This year he had an average pre-season and will have a barn-stormer of a season.

that is one shot for every 4 minutes of possession. 

Newcastle had one shot for every 5.5 minutes of possession.