R18 vs WSW | Sat 4th Feb | 7:35pm | Yarrow Stadium

Your son had a shocker

At least we got cheered up by those NP ladies flashing the Zone at the end.

why have I had to watch 90 mins of barbarouses effing useless? Was mcglinchey dead?

WSW are not the bunnies that people seem to think. Have been thinking for a few weeks that when they get their game together they will do well. They have only lost 5 games while we have lost 9.

There is no excuse for today as they were the better side. The main difference is that they had 2/3 players that were superb and could turn a game where as we did not.

holy moley! I sat at the nines all day and there wasn't anything this decent. And I can hear Guns and roses where I hope much of the same is happening!

They weren't the better side the whole game which was the frustating part. As someone said- it's the hope! We knock it around, look ok and then can't find the finish. I believed we could come back right up until the last minute with the talent we had on the park. Let alone Parkhouse and Watson who are both handy attacking subs in their own right. Don't forget Parkhouse off the bench has been the catalyst for our victories before. 

So is it a shake up or steady as she goes? 

Seems like we've got unhappy Roly again. 

Actually your last point is on the money. I think any of McG, Smeltz, Krishna, Kosta, Finkler, Roly, Tratt and Doyle are capable of doing something special and winning games for us. And maybe others. They just haven't been.

Wsw were so much better than us it was ridiculous, we were flattered by 3_1. Ref may have been worse than us. If I played for the phoenix I think I'd try and find smeltz around the box a bit more, we were total rubbish going forwards. ridenton must be crap if we can't give him more time than that.

Pictures or it never happened

On the cards business. 

We got to three finals kicking crap out of everyone. The opponents were afraid. We got yellows and some bans. 

If we are going to get the cards anyway, isn't it rational to return to a policy of...hrrmmm, good physical defending and have the opposition afraid of us rather than laughing at us?

I was going to post when the team was announced just before the game... it looks like a good team, but the whole formation depends on Roly's attitude. 

With that said Finkler was decent when coming on, up to that point the Nix definately lacked a bit of creativity which was the issue when Merrick tried playing Roly in the playmaker role the first time. I thought A-Rod was the most effective player, wierd to see him taken off for McG (should have been Kosta). I didn't watch the last 10 minutes but is Ridenton a shot for long term replacement for Lia? As good as Lia has been this season, his lack of mobility was shown up tonight.

Come on Leggy we were crap again.They wernt that good we were just rubbish yet again.No doubt the excuses will start coming,its to hot its to cold,the ref was shark the linemans were rubbish we wernt at home the players were tired bla bloody bla. Thoroughly sick ofper BS excuses being used for yet another incompetent performance. 

Watching them bang it around at the back then give it to Mossy to launch it forward where those fast short forwards have to then win a heading duel to win possession  makes you just shake your head and go WTF. For those who attend training do they ever actually pass to one another there because it looks like some of them have no idea who their team mates are at all.

Just sick of the excuses i just want a team that shows as much passion as the.fans that support them do because frankly its some time since they have shown that on a consistent basis. They are making it hard.

They took their chances fairly well. 

No they were not great, but were miles better than us. We may have good players on paper but they just don't seem to have the football nous.

Their  2/3 players that did the damage were excellent.We are not playing the game to our strengths. Smeltz should have the ball played to his feet so he can hold it up and get players running off him. Apart from one shot and the penalty what did he do.

Good night sweet princes. Game over. See you next season.

They were way better than us, and we can forget about catching them for a top 6 slot.

Popovic sets really high expectations of his players through his rotation system, and last night WSW were so much hungrier, and tactically, outcoached us. They were more than happy to concede the possession stats, knowing they had the quality to strike when it counted at anytime.    

Not sure what Buckingham's on about post game - we were really predictable and poor. The early Durante card didn't help at the other end - but can't blame the bad night for officials - as WSW clearly scored early.

Agree - only an upset win over Sydney next week will make amends for that performance. But can't see that happening. Like everyone now, you make sure Smeltz never gets the ball to feet, smother Roly into submission, and limit Kosta's penetrating runs.   

The hyperbole here is amazing.

Don't think it's a hyperbole. We got outplayed, we are slow and the body language was pretty bad, all the Ref blaming instead of looking at them self: Roly yellow card, red for Smeltz, pure frustration. I can't see a positive trend on how they play. Last week I was happy to excuse with the heat, but I thought at the end we got outsmarted by Adelaide. We just have to accept that we are mediocre team at best and need bad games from other teams to win.

rubbish performance. Seemed like wsw were pretty defensive and then carved us in counter. We needed to get it wide and then cross to numbers in the middle- but we never seemed to get players forward.  Kosta was shark again

It was classic wsw, not their recent attempt at possession football, built on defence - press and try win high or sit deep and counter and they can sit deep because they get the tallest CBs to win the ball in the air.

Not sure what your basing that optimism on because its certainly not based on previous results or those games we have in front of us. Yes the gap isnt massive but come on we havnt really shown much for us to expect them to be able to bridge it.

it's hardly miles outside the realms of believabilty ballane 

What was the croud by the way?

Dear Phoenix squad.

I can very much sympathise the disgusting 39 degrees last week. The game should never have been played. I can symlathise that it mitht take a few days to recover too.

But fudge me, I drove 4 and a half hours each way, spending $110 on petrol, getting home at 2:30am. I expected a little more effort than the dross I saw. I have seen wet bus tickets put up more resistance. You guys looked good for the first twenty and after that .......total crap.

One day will you guys actually pass the ball accurately to each other? Will you get the ball to Smeltz's feet where everyone knows he likes it? Will you ever stop being hot on attack only to end up passing it back to our centerback Captain? Is he our new attacking creative midfielder? Plan b seems to consist of going hot on attack down the wings, only to end up passing it back to Durante or even back to Moss who just lumps it up the field to anyone. Sorry guys but you gift the ball back to the opposition way too much.

Yes, the match officials were crap. "Offside" - the bald lino has been around since season  3 and he has been shark ever since. The one on the zone side of the field doesn't know what an offside is and the referee was a clown.

However, as professionals, our players should at least try and rise above them, yet Durante seems more intent on antagonising the referees with his in your face theatrics, rather than just asking for a please explain.

I enjoyed visiting stadium number 12, it is a great layout and the view of the Mount was awesome. And that was the only highlight. Very disappointed and again I feel let down by guys whom really should have tried a lot harder. It really makes it hard for me to justify it to my wife and kids as to why I travel to all the games. If it wasn't for this damn record, I would be giving North Harbour a miss. I dont really want to drive all that way for 90 minutes of lameness.

I was bitterly disappointed (pissed-off in fact) to get home from a (losing) club cricket game played in 30+ heat and see the Phoenix had blown it without much effort.

However, my first thoughts were with those, like yourself, who had so excitedly planned their trips to the game all week and then had to sit through such disappointment.

I'm raging with a bit of 'FTP' today, in lieu of getting back to a mate - a Sky Blue fan - about heading to thursday's game.

The crowd was just over 5k, I didn't go but they said on the TV that all the busses between Wellington and New Plymouth were overbooked, add into that the amount of people that seemed to have driven and I wonder what percentage of that 5k were Wellingtonians?

I know we had no choice but take a game on the road at that time because of the Guns and Roses concert, but for 5k is it really worth it? Why not take the mandatory Phoenix game to Auckland at that point? Because of the Auckland nines I suppose.

The fact that we have so many conflicts with the stadium every year, and the fact that it's the busiest stadium in the country would seem to indicate that the region needs a second stadium, even if it's not a grand idea of a new one. They're supposed to put flood lights in at the basin reserve by 2019, it would be nice to push that forwards so that they're in by 2018 and play Phoenix games there when Westpac is otherwise occupied. Not ideal but better than making the deadicated fans drive several hours and not get anyone new along.

Yes but how many of those 8 games do you think we can win?

Fixed

Unfortunately not the result I wanted to see after a long drive down. Good atmosphere in the Fever Zone though.

One thing I noticed was that we seemed to be playing Ernie-Merrick-Football, plenty of short passes, not many shots. We preferred to keep the ball rather than penetrating the defence. Teams have found that out over a season ago, all they have to do is sit deep and we will eventually pass it to them. It's a tactic that hasn't worked since Nathan Burns. The only difference I noticed in terms of attacking strategy was that we were trying more whipped crosses into the box towards two of the tallest centre-halves in the league. To be more positive, I thought Tratty and A-Rod had good performances. We were lucky to only lose by two though, we were let off with that penalty and the WSW goal disallowed early. 

I think it's important to acknowledge that it may have taken a little longer to recover after playing in 39 degrees and flying from Adelaide to NP. We've also got to realise this is a transitional period for the club, first season without Siggy, Riera and Manny, three experienced stalwarts for the club. Unfortunately considering our A-League license situation, I'm not sure how many transitional seasons we can avoid and afford. 

I'm hoping we can be the team to ruin Sydney's invincible record in probably the most difficult fixture of the season next week. Our chances of Top 6 has slimmed, and even if we do make it we seem too inconsistent to make a good push. I hope they prove me wrong. 

My thoughts of Kosta and Finkler are that they just have not contributed anywhere near enough and seem to get by on reputation rather than what they produce

Yep, you can accuse the team of being shark all sorts of different ways, but long ball isn't really one of them.