R12 vs Melbourne Heart, Friday 9.30pm SS4

Yep, start Boyd. We can keep on saying he's inexperienced but, until we have a youth team or somewhere for these young players to have, we have to blood them in the wild. More game time will mean more experience.

I think Boyd is still best used as an impact player - too hard to say he will play like that for 60+ minutes. I expect Brockie to start next week because Merrick will have faith in him coming right. It might piss people off but with no Ifill he is still probably our best option with the players we have available

My view on Brockie is it's simply a head thing at the moment. I'd be more concerned if he was invisible and not getting into scoring positions, but he's doing everything but score. He will still be treated as a danger by opposing sides because football people know it is only a matter of time before he starts scoring again and they won't want to give him that opportunity when playing against them.

For once I didn't bother following this thread while watching and I'm going to keep doing that. Still too much negativity and lack of knowledge by the usual suspects. Can't wait for the real and respective analysts to post today for mine, loved the game and the contibution everyone made. This is 1000 times better than the dross served up at Napier, if we played like that here, big crowd in 2014. 

Agree. Brockie has to start against WSW. Good place to end your drought, and it's going to take something special in front of goal to come away with any points, even though WSW will get a real workout tonight against Victory. Brockie's a nightmare to defend against, and everyone knows he will start scoring again soon. Getting in great spots, reading Hernandez better etc etc. The back to back wins will also take some pressure off him. Boyd looks like our new impact player to me.

It's great we've got back to back wins, kept consecutive clean sheets, and broken the Melbourne hoodoo, but I think there's still a lot of work to do. Finishing is still an obvious problem but I also think that our defence has been lucky that the last two teams we played couldn't finish chances either. Both Sydney and Heart should have scored at least one each against us on the balance of the chances they had and we can't rely on the opposition missing sitters to win us games.

Last night we had periods where we looked really good, especially in the first quarter of the game, but there were also some quite poor mistakes under no pressure a few times. The ease with which that Mifsud midget got in behind Manny multiple times was worrying, a better team would have made that count.

I think what would help us a lot is if we went a goal or two up in the first 25mins or so of a game, so we could play without so much pressure on us. It still feels like we're not quite clicking - but hopefully we can get there with a bit more confidence from these results. 

Both teams had chances against us with the goal wide open & blew it.Can't see that happening with WSW

Can a Statsmeister post our shots on goal vs goals scored ratios for the season and this last game?  I feel that we didn't get too many sniffs at one last night, although we had a few in the first half that could have gone in on another day.

Also just wondering how long we can be "unlucky" in front of goal (number of shots hitting the woodwork etc).

Any news on Fenton? Was it the same shoulder? Hope it is not to bad and he can play against WSW. He's getting better and better.

manny and lia on heart payroll last night....

Another question on statistics for someone better informed than me to answer: we keep looking at Brockie's goals last season as a benchmark. But what were his averages like the year before? Surely no-one expects him to score like in 2012 year in year out, because it was a fluke. Once he sorts his head out I expect him to be able to score more regularly because he has still a lot to offer.

I agree with others that Ernie has to play Brockie, no matter how much I cringe at the memory of the sitters he missed. He can be subbed off to put some fresh legs on the park (and it seems Boyd runs well).

hard to compare Brockie's earlier seasons with the last one because he never really played consistently as a striker before that

Was at the game - was a strange one; I thought  the Heart had the better chances for most of the game but Boyd coming on and Brockie going off really changed things for the better.

Don't think we played any better than we have when we've lost or drawn at various times this season. Still letting them get in behind far too easily - Manny was the main culprit, I thought. Various times he made runs then passed to the opposition under no pressure or air swung his clearances.

Still don't think Brockie and Stein should play together - they get in each others way. Hasn't worked all season. I guess without Ifill we don't have a hell of a lot of choice, though.

Thanks man, it's always nice to get recognition.

What I was getting at was that we haven't had a game yet this year where we've been in a position to feel comfortable and that that's stopping us playing as well as we can. Our poor finishing puts pressure on the team all across the park because the defenders and midfielders know that mistakes will be even more costly because we're not putting chances in at the other end. We've never settled into a coherent rhythm as a team for more than about 10 minutes this year and I don't think we will until we manage to put away a couple of chances early. Until we do that I think we can expect more of the same defensive lapses and missed passes in the midfield. Basically saying that the problems in every area are coming about because the team as a whole is down on confidence from the poor finishing.

Should have elaborated more to avoid the sarcastic response.

Ernie Merrick says their depth will be tested ahead of their New Year's Day game against the Wanderers in Sydney.

"Stein's got a tight hamstring, Louis Fenton dislocated his shoulder again. Carlos got through most of the game but his quad is playing up a little bit so we'll probably fly a couple more players over."

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/20511005/football-injury-worries-for-phoenix/

Sounds like Fenton will be out, Huysegems sounds pretty close to be out and Hernandez for a late fitness test

Ernie must be a great manager to work for , he is so calm

Yay, how good is that...10pts (how the %$# is Sydney on 18 points?????)

Intervention time - Huysegems takes Brockie out to the nearest barber in Sydney and cuts off that damm mohawke and brockie walks out with a number 1. Stein say's "hey brockie it works for me for scoring goals, it will also work for you huh!

Hey Phoenix enough already with the:

Short corners; what is the point of earning a corner, if we don't even get a cross in????

Trying to walk the ball in to the goal; Shhhhhooooooooootttttt, hit the ball like I told you.....

Bring on next week. One more start for Brockie against WSW, if he doesn't score Boyd in the second half for me.

No the greatest game by a long way, but great to see us be able to grind out a (probably undeserved) victory like that.

Sure - not the greatest spectacle but fuck it,we won.Sweet

Tweets from Piney:

Matthew Ridenton and @JBrindellSouth on their way to Sydney to bolster Phoenix squad ahead of game v WSW on Jan

@radiosportnz reporting Louis Fenton will stay in Australia with Phoenix and could play WSW on Wednesday

https://twitter.com/pineyzb

We always win when Iffy is limping!!!

Yeeeeew

Did any one else see steiny start swimming every time had tried to turn while running?

I agree watching the replay this morning, it was not a pretty game but 3 points is 3 points. Aloisi should feel a bit down about that because they had as much right to 3 points as we did if not more so. Moss is in some good form right now.

Fenton popping his shoulder again so soon is a worry. That puts him into the sloppy floppy joint territory that only surgery can fix usually. Could he be done for the season as well? We do have Leo who is spinning wheels..... I think safety first is a smart move and Leo will do as good a job. 

Id love to see leo have another crack at RB. But isnt ernie on record saying he wants to play leo as an attacker and doesnt see him as a defender?

He is but it's not stopped him before and in desperate times...

Consider the alternative - Shermy or Adams... I'll take Bertos thanks

Or Boxall.

Shoulders are notoriously bad (more so than any other joint) for popping out again after you've done it once. Just ask a snow boarder

not playing consistently as a striker this season either....lol

The other option Ernie might take to cover Fenton would be Muscat and bring Caira back in on the left 

Well, you do have a valid point in that especially Manny left himself exposed when losing the ball high up. A number of Mifsud raids started in that way, and a better team would have finished off these chances. But equally, a better team than Phoenix would have capitalised on their leaky defensive lines. Still, a bit of a harsh to call them both 'on MBH payroll'. Probably more of a case of "who covers for me when I go forward" than anything else. If Lia and Manny are supposed to cover each other (correct me if I am wrong) then it is not good enough, as they're both experienced players.

On another note, is Carlos ever going to take over "long-distance-cannonball shot" mantle from Tim Brown? If he (Hernandez) is good at anything at all then this is one area he's always excelled at with MBV, so I would like to see him try for us some more of the kind of rockets like he shot against the Heart crossbar last night.

Funny stuff when an elderly Heart supporter (prob Aloisi snr) took offence to us telling Aloisi he was getting sacked in the morning. He got a big Who are ya (and a 'double denim' chant)