R17 vs Perth Glory | Sat 2 Feb | 11:59pm | SS4

I’m going to sleep, sick of seeing Doyle pump it long. Has anybody told him the Perth defenders are all well over 6ft?

Missing Taylor so much at the back and Durante,still in this but will have to nick one soon or else it could be a right royal rogering.
Rufer playing well,Doyle being skinned alive by Castro who's  a different class tonight,Keogh will score if he is constantly given the amount of space on the left he had in the first half.

I think this highlights how thin our squad is,we lose a couple of first team regulars and we struggle,anyway a quick goal and anything could happen,$20 the draw at the TAB worth a cheeky fiver?can't see it unless Rudan can pick a rabbit out the hat!

COYN!!

It's not a game for wingbacks 

Can see why Durante didn't want to make the trip.

just passing ourselves into trouble!

Would take Doyle off, drop Kopa to LCB, bring Sheridan on and drop Singh deeper.

Was always going to be tough away to the league leaders. Then without 3 first choice, and very experienced players becomes extremely hard.

Flush it down the dunny. Hopefully doesn't turn ugly in 2nd half.

Pity Golec wasn't signed two weeks ago, he would be really valuable for this game in a back 3.

Best thing I've seen in this game is that you can buy a Sundae from Maccas for only $1 in Aus

Wtf McDonald'sNZ

Except for Kurto

Williams and Doyle having absolute shockers

Aussie getting knocked out the Asian Cup didn't help us. Useless Aussies!

Game over, more terrible defence. Go to sleep all.

Harsh on Rufer who is one of the only ones who has tried to move us forward tonight. Kopa culpable for this terrible performance.

And that's that ,night all!

We've been fudgeing abysmal

Rudan ain't pleased about the challenge. Can't see why, he got all ball

Fudgecakes

Night everyone. No need to subject ourselves to this

Rudan likes to do that when things go wrong I've noticed - blame refs, blame everyhting else except how we're playing etc.

If Fox was smarter/more aware then, he wouldve scored from Reddys mishap

that push against Williams was a foul against Cacace a few minutes ago 

Perth ask and receive from the ref

Doesn’t the game in the Castle on Thursday now become a biggie.

Jets win that and they close within 5 pts of the Nix. Need to avoid a loss I’d say, otherwise some negative thoughts will start to arise.

Hopefully Mandi is back from Spain.

So a goal conceded for every defensive (or defensively minded player missing)? chalk that one off, was no way a result was coming with an all new backline. Just too bad that other results didnt go the way of the Nix.

Would have been interesting if Williams and Krishna had taken that early chance 

That was a terrible read.

Judging by the comments on the last few pages in this thread, I'm really glad I made the decision NOT to stay up for this game.

Without Mandi, Dura & Taylor, it certainly illustrates how frail our defense is.

Good tactics from Perth/Popa. Boxed in each side of the field when Lowry/Doyle were on the ball, neither was good enough to play a penetrating pass and we frequently lost possession there or it cycled back around for a rinse and repeat.
A few positive signs from Golec when he came on, can see him putting pressure on the LCB position.

the gulf between those that played versus those out was huge!

For me the biggest issue was the back 3. Lacked the skills to play a passing game and also are clearly slowe at reading the game. Durate an Taylor are always getting in front of their man, last night Keogh had the Perth players all had space to have their first touchild and time to turn often as well.

You take Dura,Taylor and Mandi out against the leaders, who are playing some great stuff, throw in the toughest road-trip in football and that's what you going to get. 

Positives? Kurto as usual, Rufer, Krishna gave them plenty of trouble.

Negatives? After a really strong start Sheridan seems to have dropped off. Doyle is still a bit dopey with his decision making at times, Singh will learn to take these games by the scruff of the neck more regularly as he develops (make him watch a recording of Castro while he was on the pitch, Rudes). Williams was well below par.

Anyway, Glory are a class act these days. We were weakened. Don't read to much into it, move along people. 

This fixture was almost Mission Impossible.

A 10 hour flight with a stop over and a body clock of midnight for kick off is very tough.

You would probably need to stay 3/4 days to get this right and that is not going to happen.

Pretty sure they got it done before the German window closed.

Who are you, and what have you done with the real Leggy? :)

First half killed us. Positing bad, no forward passes from the backline, general bad positioning and decision making of the three in the back. here is no excuse, coach should yell it once abd they should know what to do. Hope Golec replaces Doyle, he was the worst player on the pitch.

Expected loss, but we need to play better against the Jets.

Only a few players can hold their heads high from that performance - Kurto (easily the best keeper in the league, week in week out he keeps us in games), Rufer (yet another top effort from him, he is fast becoming a really good CM), Libby (nothing too flash but still a good effort, so much that he got regularly praised by the commentary team, given he is 18 and was marking for most of the game on of the best attacking minded players in the league), Roy and Fenton worked hard but did not really see the same space and ball they need to make any huge impact. Defensively we were frail, relying on Doyle to lead a back three is not a good idea. Can't predict Taylor getting a virus, he would have made a massive difference. Mandi was probably always going to stay home with his partner expecting a baby any day. As a great man once said, "we just flush it down the dunny and move on to the next one". Thankfully its a quick turn around. Id doubt Mandi will fly over, Taylor should be clear of virus which hopefully means we get rid of Doyle (I'd prefer Golec). Dura is probably already in Newcastle waiting for the team.

Sounds like Rudan is unhappy with Doyle 

To me last night drove home, that the signing of Golec was a smart move by Rudan. Strange that people have criticised picking him up.

Both Taylor & Durante are not young - though Taylor having a virus was just bad luck - and Lowry & Fox as yet are not up to it. They barely played a forward pass all night.

Both were only making their second start for the season, and suddenly being called in to play away to the league leaders is tough, but they just seemed scared to back themselves to thread a ball thorough, so just played it across field all night. In their defence Doyle was hardly a cool head, nursing them along.

Golec on the other hand is more experienced, and I don't think will be as fazed stepping into Dura or Taylor's shoes, once he's up to speed with his team mates.

yeah totally blaming him for the first goal - silly free kick and then misses his man from the corner.

I think Doyle has been riding his luck for a while now - Kopa is clearly the better choice there.

And hitting the cross bar in an almost open goal in the 2nd minute.

Man on front post no brainer