R14 vs CCM Sun 12 Jan 7pm - Kids Go Free

Yeah I think Ernie pulled the wrong man there.

Jesus Carlos charging like Bull Allen

But hes giving it ay

"Wind whistling thru our sound effects microphone" as it has for the whole match

Draw is probably a fair result.

That sucked. Never got into this match sadly. Spent the last 30mins looking at porno gifs on Tumblr 

Better than a loss. Tough defence to crack. Signs are very good..the big thing for me is that I thought out Mom was boxall. Hes proved hes fast enough and has the quality to cause defences issues

Yeah that was boring as hell. We never looked like scoring. Based on that im pretty gutted we had to resign hernandez.

Hope Merrick was worried about Waffles workload or something, because otherwise it was the wrong choice. Not Carlos's game tonight.

Any idea of the crowd... 

Yeah I though Carlos should have been yanked.

My MOM was with Manny, Lia or Riera. Boxall looked knackered in the end and a bit lost on the right flank attack for me to give him MOM kwlap

Leo must be worse than park football if he can't get any time out there with some of what is being played. He would have been better than Boxall going forward. Have to wonder why we tried to convert Boxall into a roving wingback. This is the frustrating thing about Ernie- we have struggled with Brockie and Stein all season and we've looked best like we did in the opening game with one up front. We get something that works and he seems set on trying the things that don't work. 

Would have liked to see Boyd and Stein working in tandem in that last ten minutes. Eh.

Also Skygo is shite shite shite. Watched a game on premierleaguepass and it was clear, great and then I watched this and it was like trying to make out creatures at the bottom of a murky rock pool and it kept freezing and buffering...

Riera played well again, Carlos should have gone a lot earlier. Dropped Stein back into AM. Apart from that was a fair result boring as fuck though

Fair call. I think pax was 7008 or something

I'll leave it to those that know a thing or two about football -unlike me - to proclaim  and analysis the result.  My tuppence worth is that  I do like our hustle and that we seem to press forward all the time. Our execution seems to be sadly lacking in front of goal however. Brockie is having a season to forget.  Mannie was awesome as always. Ref was OK-ish - 5 yellows to them thar Mariners and only two to us.  A win to us would not have been unfair. Just wish we had that killer instinct.  Still, that missed penalty... lol. One memory that stands out is when Waffles gave up chasing a ball that then held up in the wind so that he could then get to it. Man, that's just laziness on his part. You should keep trying each and every time. Not unhappy with the result but not happy either.

Lol at saying Boxall was MOM, he did not look like a right full back. 

Carlos was disappointing as always.

Riera MOM. 

Was a very poor quality game from both sides imo, don't know how much the wind played a part in that, but it really seemed to lack intensity.

Cannot believe that was the same team that beat WSW. Although, it wasn't because that team did not contain the passenger Hernandez. He seriously has to be dropped next game. Offers absolutely nothing. Even his set pieces are woeful - hits the first man every time!

We played well for maybe 20 minutes in the game but overall we just could not seem to string any decent passes together and Reddy had a very quiet time in their goal.

Disappointing after the last few weeks.

Boxall was good relatively speaking (for someone who plays infrequently). However, my MOM is Manny Muscat. Was solid.

It was the same Phoenix, but it was a different opposition. Mariners turned up to play today, while WSW was out to lunch a week ago.

I posted a comment a week ago that it was not a game we won against WSW but a game WSW lost against us. CCM did not make that mistake. Their intensity and their pass precision was superb and arguably they were slightly better than us. They reminded me of Perth Glory youngsters who took us apart couple of weeks ago in Perth through sheer speed; we played better today than then, so we managed to save a - probably deserved - draw.

What I did not like was the quality of refereeing (linesmen in particular) - however, the penalty decision against Moss was correct.

We were better against WSW regardless though. We found or players with passes and wasted nowhere near as many as we did today.

Probably should've started with Boyd instead of Brockie, and even Hicks instead of Hernandez. At least Hicks gives you an honest shift and doesn't act like a petulant child when he loses the ball.

So. For someone who missed the game... did Krishna do anything?

He got fouled when he would have been clear away.  Otherwise no.

Not enough time for Krishna and no service to him whatsoever due to abysmal passing.

Average game and performance. BUt this happens.

In other lols....

Match report says that Boxall picked up his 5th yellow tonight. 

Leo on next week then?

I don't think we did try to convert Boxal to a roving wingback. But we showed no width whatsoever, and CCM were happy to play the same tight way, especially after they scored.

So Boxall was often left with a fair amount of space on the RHS, and to be fair, although I thought he played well at full back, he is no Fenton going forwards.

God only knows why we didn't play with more width on the LHS, Cunningham was tucked in so much that we rarely had anyone else to pass to except Boxall.

Mariners got their tactics bang on IMO. I didn't believe the hype prematch that they were going to be easy. They are a Championship winning side, they are third on the table and even though they have lost a couple of players they have plenty of players who know how to close out games. Plus we always struggle against them.

Tactically they looked like they knew we were not going to hurt them out wide. Boxall and Muscat are OK players but they are not going to skin you on the outside....as long as their defenders stayed goalside then they were sweet. As a result they  could pack the central midfield. This is where we struggled. We just could not get anything going in this area. Carlos was heavily marked and tended to drop deeper and deeper to receive out of the traffic. End result we were building our attacks from too deep. We were also not going wide at the top end of the pitch and resorted to playing centrally trying to hit the front guys with 30 metre passes. 

Normally Ernie is great with his subs....this time he screwed it up a bit IMO. The Stein/Boyd combo has been great for us....also Boyds pace and skill out wide would have been real handy earlier on. As it turned out our most potent combo did not get on the pitch at the same time....which is bizarre. Surely Brockies time for starting games must be over. Boyd was instantly more lively and threatening. Why did Stein come off?  he's just had a weeks rest....and he is our best scorer. Hard to say if Carlos was shit or they made him shit because of the heavy marking....will have to watch the replay. However one thing I have noticed is we play Ernies style a whole lot better with the nimble quicker guys like Boyd on the field...Carlos looks ponderous at times.

A draw is a fair resulk but with Victory and Roar to come getting points is not going to be easy. Certainly we will have to up our game bigtime next week. Victory won't be as slack on attack as CCM were.

Stein and Boyd played together for 20 mins, but I agree I would have got Boyd on earlier

Has Boxall really got 5 yellows? I'd be surprised to hear he'd made 5 appearances, never mind 5 bookings!

I am usually fairly critical of Carlos's low level intensity but in the end he put in a solid shift within his ability today.

Fair call on possibly using Hicks today instead - has lower skills but is faster. However, he made a couple of bad passes. That was clearly visible today again (so it is a consistent trait of his). Krishna might have made a difference if he came on a bit earlier - but I appreciate that Ernie was careful not to expose him too early in case he tanked. Boyd was in a way a safer option for Brockie.

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/aleague/matchcentre/matchreport/Wellington-Phoenix-v-Central-Coast-Mariners-Hyundai-A-League/3154

penultimate paragraph

It's  only his third according to Ultimate A-league.