R15 vs Melbourne Victory | Wed 10th Jan | 7:35pm | RoF | Kids go free

Fantastic. Never doubted the boys.

Finally we won!!.

Fair call maybe, I really hope he does improve as he needs to. I see him as a really similar player to Aaron Clapham who probably cops the same amount of criticism. As i posted earlier i think they're Ridenton and Claphamare both above average Handa Prem players but not convinced of the A-League capabilities. Think the paying public deserve better imho

I am with you on this sober assessment, despite all of us feeling slightly euphoric.

One-on-one, Victory were more dangerous than any of our players, but we managed to stretch them wide enough in the second half to get something out the game.  While we threatened, our own inaccuracy kept letting us down.

I am sure Victory will write it off as a one-off banana skin, and I liked Milligan's articulate post-game comments. For us, it was a sign that we could potentially string an attack together, under the right circumstances.

even had a little dabble on us tonight at $3.50

Haha

for all your pointed critiques you're a bloody football tragic at heart

Criticism of Crapham is fair enough though. Only one reason was an All White and a dozen as to why there was never a pro contract!

Oh yeah, I waiver but the only sports team I never miss is the nix.

28 shots against 3. Says a lot about our midfield performance - even if we weren't clinical at all, us holding them back to a tenth of our shots says a lot. Paracki our silent hero for me, feel like he's going to end up as a Makelele or Gilberto Silva in that he's going to get a lot of shark for apparently doing nothing, when in fact he's going to be our engine.

Burns you god. Him and Krishna are looking formidable.

Unpopular opinion incoming.... Krishna had a shocker. Those 'shots' from the corners were comical and a few of his decisions were head scratching. I hope he gets over his injury quick. I don't think he's at 100% but well done for the goal.

Other than that I thought Burns made all the difference for us. Class first touches and both goals came from him. Ljujic looks promising. Great passing and vision. Caught out a few times and I think the pace of this league will take some getting used to. 

Fox had a great performance and so did Dura. It's just a few issues in the middle of the park and not taking all our chances.

Optimistic for Saturday!

Sure Ridenton isn't a starter in a top 6 side (yet, he says optimistically), but he's copped crap on this thread all night, but there has hardly been any questioning of those further up the pitch! 

Kaludjerovic missed 3 one on ones in this game remember? Roy hit the corner flag 5 times. Was it Burns missed the open net, a real open net, not like the one with a keeper and two defenders?-

Ridenton completely deserves his place in our squad and his put everything into the games he has played. If he can learn how to beat the keeper and post he might start scoring a few more.

For mine his composure of twice in that last 5 minutes of controlling and passing the ball showed something others were missing and a focus on winning. 

I hope he keeps developing and becomes a club stalwart personally. But that's something we'll find out. Interesting tussle in the mids now. 

That's why he's a great player. He can have a shocker and be two goals in two games and have scared the crap out of the opposition.

Agree with every single thing you said. Also think Mullen had a mare in the first half but managed to steady himself a bit

What was the crowd size anyone?.

They didn't announce it again lmao probably 5431

That was hard work. Great fight by the boys. Well deserved win. Sometimes goals don’t go in, they tried again and again. Players and crowd was very happy after the game we cheered them on. I hope this puts them in the right headspace for the next game.

Ridenton did absolutely fine, he will be a great midfielder.

Ya beauty! C’mon Phoenix! See you all at the ring of fire on Saturday.

We are bottom for a reason. We have players who are not up to A league and Ridenton is one.

I wonder if the early sub off of Rossi was necessary?  I mean,  we looked dominant and also sound at the back. Once that change happened the game seemed to even up.  Victory have a very dangerous attacking set of players. They only need a sniff. Without Rossi we seemed unable to restrict their movement. At least until we finally equalised. Then the extra player advantage finally seemed to kick in. Although by that stage we also had the new import on the field.
I felt at the time we should have been more conservative with our subs in the first half. I felt sorry for Rossi at the time. But,  hey,  I'm not the pro coach and we won!
2nd win of the season. Feels like we won the cup!

Saying that Krishna had a shocker proves you know jack shark about football - sure, he had a few wayward shots, but he was the driving force behind every good thing we did that game - on offence and tracking back.

His energy was infections; if every player in the team gave as much as Krishna gave tonight, we would be nearer the top of the table. Not every shot is going to come off. Completely different levels, but his effort reminds me of Sanchez at Arsenal - a player who can also seem wasteful because he gets on the ball so much and tries to make things happen.

Ljujic needs to find his right foot-  even with simple short passes he was using his left. Will get found out quickly.

More criticism for Paracki deserved, has been shark all season.

Anyway, happy with the win. Nice to have Burns back, is class like you said - though unlike Krishna he doesn't have that same energy. Better than Vidosic though who is catatonic at times. 

On the flip, Burns was one of our best players, so getting him out early was helpful in that regard.

He had a shocker. For his standards. Is that better? I expect more from him. A few wayward shots... Dude, he hit the corner flag twice from the same position, minutes apart. 

Yeah, no - it's not like he was 1on1; why not criticise AK who should've buried a couple?

Strikers are always going to have the odd wayward shot. It is normal. His general game was very good - tracked back many times, his general play was good, his energy and reaction time is the reason we got the first goal etc.

Much better than last week where I do think he was poor.

Krishna worked his ass off and was key. Though his shots from corners sucked. Burns sucks shooting from range too.

Enjoyed the game. I think we did a lot of things well- but hard to gauge v ten

My arm was cramping up so bad from all the drumming in the last 10 minutes, I was in lots of pain but had to keep going until the big finish. Anyone got any tips how to keep the arm going through long repetitive motions?

Burns . Different League.

I thought we did alright second half.

Next two players to replace are Ridenton and Goalie.

Shark there are some sad sacks here,its a friggen win after a terrible start to the season couldnt care less how it came about. The important thing is it came. Saturday is very important in that they MUST build on todays result. See people constantly calling for Kiwis to be given a chance yet all Ridenton gets for his efforts is shark. Yep he makes the odd mistake but so do some of the better performed players.

The responses to this one could go very bad.

Is it just me or are Liam Hyslops Phoenix pieces on Stuff fairly negative?

Today’s headline reads ‘Wellington Phoenix beat 10-man Melbourne Victory, with help from Lawrence Thomas and Dino Djulbic’

To be fair to Ridenton, he has been doing just as well as Paracki who is a higher paid import who we should expect more from.

Lube the drum?

I was hoping we would

I was praying.

Recruit an import drummer, with a good experience in drumming for a minor European league team, and with a complicated surname? A proven winner.

Just as a thought. Maybe Rossi was subbed because of his yellow card count. A centre back was deemed to be sacrificed and he was chosen because in a game that at that stage looked potentially multi card victims the coach protected him from himself. He cannot be far from the automatic ban for yellows in the season

Liam Hyslop posted this on twitter about the substitutions. 

https://twitter.com/liam_hyslop/status/951052650648305665

Interesting. Right about Rossi, great defender in terms of field position, body position and timing of the tackle but he's not the fastest and his passing range (actually passing in general) is fairly limited. I think Rossi and Fox would be our best CB combo.

Reminds me of another midfielder and Phoenix legend, now a succesful shoe salesman.