R11 vs Sydney FC | Sat 19th Dec | 7:15pm | RoF (with nice turf)

• 12 Pubs
• Fever Dreams food drive
• Christmas cheer, santa hats, donations to Tawa AFC etc.

Some football seasonal music to get things going:

"I'll give it to Chris Greenacre"

Please i beg you all, any one, anyone reading this, please, please, please, this year can we have NO Gareth and Nuk Tilsey/Nek Tunsliy (Followed by copious laughter) doing that same friggen song.

Did the turf at ROF survive the onslaught of ACDC over the weekend? Or does the groundsman have to get the green paint out with tinsel lol

According to Shane on twitter it came through pretty well and they are going ahead with the "re-turfing" at the stage end which was pre-planned.  

tl;dr sounds like it should be good

Still not got tickets for Saturday? 
The Wellington Advent Calender for 12th, has a 2-4-1 deal for Phoenix tickets in December & January : http://advent.wellingtonnz.com/

Everyone bring some friends

Oh Smeltzy I gave you my heart...

Are they doing those $10 tickets for this one? 

On the Wellington city council advent calendar they have two for one tickets.

I wonder how we are tracking with ticket sales... I see the Nix media accounts pushing buying tickets but that could just be normal. Bit hard for the casual fan to remember that they are playing again this time of year maybe.

Easy for us as we have been counting down to the next game (and 12 pubs)

Grrr just found out I have family that need picking up from the airport at 7:35 (selfish bastards) so have given my ticket to a work mate who will be taking his family. Really disappointed as I was looking forward to singing "oh smeltzy..."

Do they know about Uber?

Probably waaayyyy to premature…….

But just brought 2 adult and 2 child tickets for Saturdays game, PAX 8783- 8786

Ok that is better than I was worrying about. Was worried we would be around 6000. Most tickets sold on day or through walk ups. So hopefully its a nice day

Pack your sunglasses.

7 pm, Sat 19 Dec

And your jumpers.

No need.  We have proper goal posts.

Pax 1 hour ago 8921

+ a few + walk-ups = 12,000

I hope so, I'd be happy if we break 10,000 to be honest.

You always take a couple of k off of the pax because they are tickets which are held by corporates and people with stadium passes.

Be great if we got 13k again but the weather might put a fair few off.

Ernie v Arnie - Who will blink first

Judging by today's weather in Sydney, his excuse will be that "Wellington is just too bloody hot! Who schedules these matches?!".

Weather looks okay for Saturday. Cloudy and a bit cold.. but not rainy:

 http://www.windguru.cz/int/index.php?sc=9446

(better than metservice)

Sounds like Siggy and Gulley will be out but Lia and Doyle should be back. Obviously Doyle will replace Ridenton but I wonder if Lia will come back in straight away. I'd think he will to replace A-Rod, but Rufer could make way for him and A-Rod could push further forward. 

Regardless, I sure as fudge hope this is a better game than the last time we played Sydney....

Manny is not a bad fill-in at CB, but without Siggy we are one tough, uncompromising and competent player short.

I have been loathe to post this because i know how much of a legend Siggy is to the Nix..... but,

I think collectively the centre back pairing with Manny and Durante works better than Durante and Siggy - and this is why..

Both Siggy and Durante like to push hard out of the line to press a striker or win a lose ball which is a great asset but if both of them do it at the same time it puts massive pressure on the fullbacks - and it does happen pretty often with those two.  Manny however plays a bit different and holds a bit more which allows Durante to press hard and i think that works better for us at the moment.

Replace A Rod?

You sir are completely mad!

Im a big A-Rod fan but I think if it came down to choosing between him and Lia for a game against Sydney then Lia is more suited to what will probably be a physical midfield battle. Of course if there's a way to fit them both on the pitch then that could work too, although I don't think that we could do that without a change in formation o.

What we need is a man with A-Rod youth and pace, with Lia's solid durability.

                        Moss

Doyle       Muscat    Durante      Fenton

            Riera                      Lia

                          Roly

           McG

      Sarpong            Roy

Apparently Sarpong trained there, so I think we might see that, or:

                         Moss

Doyle      Muscat     Durante       Fenton

              Riera                    Lia

                          A-rod

                          Roly

                Roy             McG

Which is what I'd rather see.

Your second formation is closer to what I think will happen.

http://www.wellingtonphoenix.com/article/1000000th...

Roll up, roll up.... but dont be early...predict some may miss start