R1 vs Western United | Sun 13th Oct | 6:00pm | RoF

Mobbing the coach? For a tired 1-0 against a pack of kids? What a bunch of...

Was there a confirmation of crowd size?? Must have missed it

jeebers fenton was bad. such a liability defensively. he had no idea when to engage with conor pain

really pleased with steinman, mccowatt, payne and waine. 

devere and taylor look as good as any defensive combo in the league

rudan is a typical aussie  wank3r.  Uses the  nix to further his career without fulfilling his contract. Then he sticks it to the nix supporters by celebrating like he's won the league. W@nker.  

I don't get all the angst!

Yes, we didn't create much going forward, but neither did they aside from their goal.

I thought De Vere and Taylor looked good tonight and Steinmann when he started pushing forward more.

Devilla was poor, but he was looking to play and create, just didn't come off at all.

I didn't get why we took Ball off and not Sotorio.

We need to be quicker in possession

Imagine going into a season with a settled XI, a couple of upgrades, same coach, players who know the formation?  Can anyone remember the last time we set ourselves up for early success.

I mean, they were pretty shark up front too. Berisha got an open chance and knocked it in.

Davila wasn't nearly as bad as many on here are making him out to be. He worked hard up and down the pitch, competed for every ball in the air and showed moments of how good he can be. He isn't the first, and won't be the last player to have a tough introduction to the physicality of the A-League - I trust Ufuk and back Davila to be a big player for us.

Western United managed to win without any of that!

The subs all seemed a bit odd at the time but the system was still working - Ball being replaced instead of Sotorio is the only thing I'm stil scratching me head about. Though I thought Ball pulled up while tracking back a few plays earlier, might have been precautionary.

Davilla needs to actually go down when it is a foul and failing that pass earlier. I thought defensively we were fine, and Payne was decent. Hopefully WU get mauled by whoever they play next :D

We're clearly still missing a striker

I see it as similar to the criticisms of us going absolutely bonkers after drawing 0-0 with Iraq.  I think I remember that.  In isolation it seems crazy to celebrate the result so hard, but the given the context, I can completely understand it.

If you blame that on Fenton, you have no idea - the reason he struggled was because he was left at sea by Davila

I know, not blaming that specifically for the result here, it would just make a nice change to how we approach a season for once.

Obviously I love your optimism but it's pretty clear that we are going to struggle to make any impact this season. I'm OK with that as long as it's 100% watertight that our status in the league is assured going forward. If so then it's only natural that a brand new squad with an untried coach is going to do it tough in the first year. 

Only hope this is recognised by Nix fans and they don't jump off the bandwagon when the wins and good times of last season don't eventuate.

Our tactics for the 2019/20 season. Pass it slowly backwards and sideways and if our wide players miraculously get onto the ball in a decent position then hoof it into the box. 

I know we have a new coach and lost alot of players but we're at home against a team playing their first professional match with half the team in their mid 30s... show some intent for fudge sakes.

I would struggle to watch us play like that for a whole season.

At best WU will be mid table ( Too many over-age players=Longer Injury recovery etc ) & WP.....somewhere below.....without 2 decent strikers....I fear its back to the future.

I know it's only one game blah blah,,,,,,but gut feeling is de ja vu too many similarities to seasons gone by.....at least there are some good signs from the younger players.

Davila isn't a our RB, he tracked back well but no one expects him to be able to stop a winger one on one, and shouldn't have to in our defensive third. That should have been Fenton's job. Where was he? Being critical of a wide foward for not being good enough performing the duties of a RB is odd.

Wait was Fenton even on the field??? I didn't hear him mentioned one time the whole game. Mr invisible.

Positives: McCowatt, Payne, Waine, Great save by Marinovic.

Negatives: Negative football. You aren't going to score by moving forward with momentum and then breaking it by passing back to the half way line. At least have a crack with positive intent when you can. I don't know why we bother crossing in to our strikers, it very rarely amounts to anything. Keep it rolling on the ground and play direct, to feet, that's when things seem happen for us.

yeah exactly. We were likely the better side for the majority of the match until they completely took control in the 80th minute when we gave up

Just seen 100 minutes of shark.

What was the crowd? Haven't seen it published yet. Whatever it was, it will be much smaller next home game.

Edit - just saw post on the last page saying it was only just over 8k... oh dare.

I'm not quite sure that's true - there's a rule later on that mentions it's only a direct free kick if the player directly interfered with play, which I don't think he did.

Happy to be proven wrong though.

Funny not long ago people were saying what a star Fenton was.

he has been out for a very very long time

He did suffer that broken toe late last season, he'll come right just needs abit of love from the haters 

I think everyone recognised he was great as a RWB (and I still believe he is) but were skeptical of his ability to defend comprehensively in Uffie's back 4. Payne looks pretty decent though and he can actually cross.

Fenton looked good from the stands in the first half, just lacking match fitness

Sorry, as a defender you just don't give attackers that much room. Fenton was too far inside and marking noone. McCowatt was consistently our most likely to open them up. Davila very disappointing. How many times did he cross it to Kurto? Sotirio won a few free kicks. Cacace wasn't used enough. Plenty to work on in the Talay Vision.

The referee is sh!t but the drums are not, the drums are not, the drums are not!!!!! 

Not a bad game but not a great game.

Mccowatt the highlight, Devila the lowlight. Hope that was a blip from him.

That was one of the most insipid performances I've seen from the nix since i've been here. Defensively, not great. Midfield, McCowatt looked good in the first but then disappeared in the second. Ball, shouldn't have been taken off, how Sotirio was on for the full 90 was beyond me. We cannot put performances like that in at home.

We had zero width, imagination or urgency. I get this is a team that has much to learn, but that WU are sharke team, truly sharke. But we gifted them that goal. A striker isn't going to change that. We had absolutely no service.  It was so obvious what needed to happen, but we exploited none of their countless weaknesses. To let that cod of snake leave with 3 points is criminal. Raging.

What you said about Davila is 100% correct. But that doesn't mean what I said wrong. It happened twice in quick succession before the goal. They were both a complete mess.

Wow. Farken poor from the ref

What was the deal with this? No one around us knew, I just saw him book taylor for some bizarre reason?

Yeah, I really like Fenton and there's also a lot to admire in terms of his professionalism and tenacity. But he can't defend. And BTW I actually don't blame him for that (the whole right back conversion thing was always bizarre)