R16 vs WSW | Sat 13th Jan | 7:35pm | Not Canberra | Kids go free

It feels like we're starting to almost gain a bit of momentum. Hopefully Burns and Ljujic are fit enough to play 90 minutes soon.

Bring on Ernie and the jets! Although it will be interesting without Paracki.

Oh and before people start piling on Ridenton, ahead of this round he'd created the third most chances of any player in the league and it's incredibly impressive he can still make those runs at the end of a game after having played 270 minutes in one week.

Italiano can take a seat on the bench though. Jesus.

It's brilliant - Raf asks proper questions and Matija gives proper answers. Makes post-match worth watching. 

Ah crap- turned off after Bridge. What'd he say?

something about the ref?

Last week Ridenton moved the ball into space, which is good enough for me. This week he was just consistently shark

"Damned By Faint Praise". 

I love that saying

we got 4 but given the chances created it could of been 9 points this week. 

I tipped 7 like a fool

Anyway it's not alol doom and gloom 

COYN 

Not dishing it out on Ridenton. He made some mammoth runs. This is a really good side in the making.

We'd be a nightmare to play in the playoffs if we did happen to scrape in, and keep improving the way we are. 

Ref, bloody hell, he let WSW get away with murder, then penalised every Phoenix foul when we got very frustrated.

It took the ref way too long to dispense with one of theirs, even then he missed the booking for the guy kicked it away. He didn't apply the damn rules.

Lots of arm waving from the Phoenix and arguing amongst ourselves. A team we did not look. In fact we looked like guys who had never met before, and hated each other even so.

Durante was a champion. He had heart and wanted to win balls.

There was a stat doing the rounds that our actual goals was much higher than our "expected goals (ExG for those into football stats).  Basically we were scoring more goals than the stats indicated that we should have been scoring for the chances created.  Now we keep butchering chances! 

Pretty decent tonight after the second half shift.  

Unfortunate that as Ridenton had probably one of his better games in a Nix shirt but rightly, everyone will remember the moment at the end. But how many times have we shot straight at the keeper from inside the box in the last couple of games? AK9 was guilty 2 or 3 times against Victory and Krishna and Burns again tonight had at least one each.

Ljujic looks different gravy. Durante and Paracki mopped up a lot of 50/50 ball for us tonight. Any goalkeepers on the market? Tamati Williams? 

I can't see how anyone can defend Krishna's performance tonight. Sharkhouse. Same as Italiano. WTF can we get an actual keeper please?

Ridenton........ All he had to do was pass the ball AK was waiting. 

Burns should have done better. Hard and low across the keeper next time.

Ljujic great goal. I fear he's a bit of a hot head though. Got a yellow card then diving into challenges willy nilly. 

Special mention to Durante for a second game in a row has been a beast.

Tamati Coffey will do.

Sounds like Dura was close to man of match ? I only listened to radio.

Disappointed to not get the win, but I like what I see from the introduction of Burns/Ljujic to our set up - there's more speed and a willingness to get on the ball and take on players in 1v1 situations, it's going to take a hell of a lot of pressure off Krishna having to be the go to creative outlet. Fantastic strike by Ljujic who looks to be a very attacking type of player. Definitely going to be placing a lot of pressure on McGlinchey to keep his place in the starting XI.

I hope this is a template for how we're going to play the rest of this season, far more exciting, far better to watch than this dour, scrappy, stand off 5-3-2 system that we've been reverting to for several weeks now without success.

Newcastle will be a big challenge, no Paracki and possibly without Fox, but we need to go there and play this type of football, if we sit deep and stand off we will get murdered. 

Let's get one over Ernie. COYN!

The reff sucked.

Ljujic goal was goal of the season, but will be overlooked.

Ljujic pass to ridenton at the end was also amazing.

We got a draw, which was pretty good.

But I just want to say positively, FEVER ZONE, PLEASE TRY MAKE MORE NOISE OVER THE GAME. Standing there silent and not joining in is poor form. Plus its more fun getting into it

Ridenton had a chance to win us the game, but it was a harder chance than many others we have butchered this season.

In the end the performance gave me some positives. Since those 2 signings we look like a competitive team. I think we will get some good results between now and the end of the season.

Picked up 5th yellow of the season towards the end there.

Durante superb tonight.

Risky business! Watching on TV, the noise from the Fever was as good as I've heard in a while!

Ps.

5 at the back is so dumb.

It's like, we'll play for nill all. Then if we concede we'll go to 4 3 3 and suddenly start winning the game and playing the better football...

Just start with 4 at the back. Fox is great again

The only thing that cost the win really was Burnsy and Ljujic playing just 45’ and I have no issue with that. Incredible when they appear, to think they’ve been together a week at most.  

Going to see some fun 2nd half of season.

Our crossing was terrible, but 3 full 90s for Doyle & Ridenton and Burns not match fit, so fatigue a factor.

I feel it coming

How was the crowd? 

Looked slightly better than Wednesday, 5800-6000?

Not announced anymore... Have to wait for the bean counters

Yeah like  it was better than most games this season... But still so poor. People start chants and so few join in. Just have some fun and start singh-ing

Could go a bottle of Stables Ngatawara Reserve right now... Pity I'm in Iraq. 4 weeks till I hit NZ...

Like people were putting pressure on the keeper before taking goal kicks... such a simple thing to do and yet so few join in...

I just want people to ask themselves why they aren't willing to help build some atmosphere in those cases

I thought the Fever sounded the best all season tonight. The last stanza of the match in particular sounded great from outside the zone. 

It was noticeable how the RBB dropped off after half time. 

We're going nowhere as long as we only have two wins all season.

Up the Fever! Up the Nix. Tonight was solid af.

Does anyone know an official crowd figure?

Another positive stat: we've scored at every home game this season.

Still happy with a good game, that we can and will build on

oh! just watching our goal again... just the way the ball didnt deviate in flight... just fantastic. 

Coach press conference:

Two new players not playing because of injury risk because of match fitness. We created chances have to put them away, no frustration but needs to be addressed. Ridenton is good, needs more nurturing, needs the will to win.

Agree, yeah Ridenton decision making in the 90min was bad. But it was a massive run from him to get there. He IS our kiwi midfield youngster, we should give him some skack. He will be better verry soon.

We could give him several skanks, but even then he'd be unlikely to score.