R17 vs Melbourne City | Sat 14th Feb | 5:00pm | Bellevue Gardens Hotel

Stadium looked great on TV. However, atmosphere suffered and the game was dire. Can't win 'em all I guess. 

- It was just a sharkty game really. The crowd never got going because the game never got going

- The lack of a roof to trap sound in a bit. By the same token, I think the flimsier temporary stands (which are basically planks on scaffolding) don't echo the noise back towards the ground as well as solid concrete and steel do.

- Cold weather making people a bit less festive

- The placement of the Fever Zone made it harder for chants to spread to neighbouring seats and then around the ground. At the RoF the fever zone chants spread into the aisles around and it helps build volume

If we ever do build a permanent purpose-built stadium though I trust that those sort of issues will be considered. Does make you feel a bit like Goldilocks at the moment though.

ethnic stuff = everything else that isn't meat and 3 veg. 1 veg must be a potato, not on a stick.

First time I saw one of those spiral spud sticks was at a Taipei night market. Does that make it ethnic?

I worry about you.  :-)

That's the thing. People in the ground couldn't hear us because the sound evaporates without a roof. 

In saying that, Zone was pretty shark. Lots of grumpy at our performance.

Someone let their kid into the control room?

How long will it take for a Bring Back Brocks campaign?

WeeNix are average though. Waitakere and Auckland were far better sides. I don't see the point in having a reserve team if you aren't going to use it. I'm not saying Boyd is better than Krishna but I'm saying he is playing well enough to have a bench spot.

Were there any conclusive replays of the incident in the first half when we cleared off the line? That looked like a goal from where I was standing, but the angle and my appalling eyesight may have misled me there.

Agree would love to see him on the bench,however that might not get him any closer to game time if Ernie plays it the way he did yesterday.Surprised that there hasnt been much comment about his lack if substitutions,mind you not that he had much on the bench.Was still surprised he didnt try and change something.

They will need to get things sorted by next week or they can kiss a top 4 spot goodbye.Watching the big blue last nite i think they have a way to go before we can think we can give it a serious shake.

We were really banging on the door, don't think it would have been wise to disrupt that.

Game like last week, we do everything right, just the goals are not coming, unlucky. The team has to continue what they do, never stop trying. I thought Roly corners where a but better, good that someone stepped up. Poor Fenton, how often have we to see him escorting of the field? Hope he is alright.

Maybe Ernie wants give Boyd as much as game time as he can get and bring him when we really need him in the finals? By then he must really pumped!

I thought the same until I just saw the replay. It hits his left leg which is in the field of play. his right leg was well behind the line. 

The lack of Twitter angst made me think we were wrong. Like Boxey I had it 100% as a goal.

Well done to the folk at Bellvue. Good hosts on what must have been a bonza saturday arvo for them

Farken brilliant.  

Did anyone else spot former Phoenix player Daniel in the croud?

Serious?

Yes.  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/football-soccer/news/article.cfm?c_id=86&objectid=11401583

"

Former Phoenix midfielder Daniel was spotted at training today as he caught up with players past and present.

The 35-year-old Brazilian, who left the Phoenix in 2012, most recently played for a couple of seasons in Thailand before retiring and now works as an agent.

"It's great to see him, obviously, 100-odd games for the club and a bit of a legend around here," captain Andrew Durante said.

Daniel's attacking play saw him become a fan favourite in the capital. He made 106 appearances and scored eight goals during his five seasons with the Phoenix."

Also, awesome team photo

Did anyone else think that he blew the fulltime whistle a bit quick. I heard that it was going to be 5 minutes extra time before flappy wasted about a minute of that pretending to have cramp. Only seemed like 2-3 to me.

Phoenix Members Cap 14/15 lost yesterday. At Belle Vue after the game (i think) 
If anyone found it and wants to give it back I'll be at next game 

Don't blame the open air. Blame the people around you sitting there with their mouths shut.

Hey Warwick,

Not sure if it was a 14/15 cap, but I found a Phoenix cap on floor and put it on the arm the Steinlager couch in the Garden bar after the game. Might be worth giving the Bellevue a call to see if it was yours.

Farken Moss in that photo ! lol

Teams havent worked us out, weve just had 2 games without our shooting boots

Daniel works as an agent now? 

Yeah, if teams had worked us out we wouldn't be creating so many chances. I'm still not too concerned. 

It's been a very, very frustrating few weeks for fans and players though.

Yeah..it was weird sitting near the half way line. The game started and everyone sat there like they were home watch Coronation street on TV. Complete silence...it was spooky. People got a bit more animated and even stomped their feet a bit near the end. But even the old favourite "clap, clap.....clap clap, clap Phoenix"  withered into silence. What is it with people in the burbs or the provinces....have they all had fun lobotomies?

Next time I'm going to sit in the South stand...high up and much more noise.

Still I loved the ground and the setup.....that is the way to watch football. The Aussie football sites(442) were all raving about the new venue too. It looked excellent on the TV. I wonder if the owners will rethink finding another piece of land to build a 10,000 stadium. Transport was great...no traffic problems. Parked 400 metres from the ground and drove straight home afterwards. I heard the trains worked OK too. To think we could have had the real thing at Petone Wreck...fudge you Petone people

The croud noise on TV was awesome and you could hear the fever bloody loudly. I would raise the camera a couple of metres more. Because its low, when play is on the far side, players get lost in the colours of the fans behind them in the stand. Thats an easy fix.

What a difference a player makes. I thought A-Rod was MOM and made a huge difference to forward impetus. If I was coach, that would be the line up for the rest of the season although judging by how Fenton had his bell rung for him.....

Chris Beath. Ok yeah I get that you got the yellow cards and thats fine but have some brains to see that there was more going on there than just 'I'll foul you and get carded'. It was deliberate to stop us having any attacking impetus and Burns will need physio after all the kicks he got. He should have red carded someone and then made the statement that 'we are here to play football' After all, did the yellow cards he show really make City change the way they played? They just ran someone else at Burns and kicked him until he got carded and then ran the next guy. That really was amateur refereeing and I could not care if he has an international star on his chest - he contributed to City getting a point by not correcting the issue and allowing football to happen.

I thought Boxall was a better footballer and effect on the game when he was swapped for Fenton and I would be ok if he started there next week. I think he takes better/smarter options than Fenton and I do wonder if Ernie is waiting for Fenton to have a break out game or something. If not, I would prefer to go back to Muscat and Doyle.

I do wonder about next week. What are we going to do to get some goals? 1 point from 9 is not ideal but we should have had points last week and this week and we did not because of finishing. I don't believe Boyd is the messiah and I think mixing up the tactics would help more. Teams just jam the box on us now so its fair to say we have been figured out as a team that only shoots from inside the box. How is Boyd going to unlock a packed penalty area if there are players that are better than him that can't. Boyd scored 4... They also played Southern and 3 were penalties. Its clear that regardless of who played, City were just going to kick the shark out of them.

To answer EGs question about the clearance off Moss' knee, the ball did not cross the line. We freeze framed (for the very same reason) and he knee was above the line. If you work on the whole ball must cross the line, it can't have.

Some of you points may be right, but it seems that you missed the first half. Could have be 2/3 down by then.

We battered them the second but our strikers could not finish. I think the wind had something to do with how the whole game panned out.

As for MC got every player to kick Burns until they got booked is pure fantasy.

Totally agree. One of the beauties of the small ground was that I was able to give Mr Beath my opinion of his refereeing when he was in front of me writing someones name down, and he would no doubt of heard. Trouble is, he just continued his way of letting MC get away with it

I'd say the same way those players were doing it before the break. We created chances, just didn't put them away. Perhaps Boyd might have have had that final ball or turn or burst of pace or fake. Not saying he's the messiah, but it's not like we had Shane Smeltz sitting on our bench or anything...at the moment would you rather have Kenny, Lia or Boyd coming on to run at tired defences?