R18 v Perth Glory | Fri 7th Feb | 11:45pm | SS7

HOOOOOOOPEEEEERRRR

At least we got some pride back now! One more boys!

Holy hell what is going on

VAR only gets involved in straight reds

hooper x2!!

I called Hooper would be good off the bench.

I'll admit I really dislike Kersey as a ref, but does he seem to always give a bundle of cards against us each time we play?

Go Talay!!

think hes trying to card every one of our players

Well that was an unexpected turn of events. Go out for a rage smoke and we're back in it!

Might go out again and hopefully we'll be in the lead when I come back!

when an aussie commentator says a card is harsh you know the ref is garbage

Need a rule change then, because this yellow led to a red which possibly affected the outcome of the game

If TAHW wants more gametime he should do better there

see what i mean hes starting on the bench now

Hudson Wahangi, that's not good enough

the ref is a fudgeing joke.

Not impressed with McCowatt - should be all action, but has barely been involved

This game is fudgeed, did not deserve to lose

bedtime.

de vere accidently takes a shoe off - no yellow. payne accidentally clips a player = yellow

this ref is a muppet

For all the praise for Taylor, don't know what the fudge he has been doing the last 5 mins

Well that's a nice strike

Apparently only 5 minutes

Wandering around on the far side

Dont get sent off Devlin you idiot

barely touched him...

Lazaridis got told to talk about Fornaroli, lol

Ball has worked his ass off tonight, too bad he can't finish

Aw well, we went from a possible drubbing at 3:0 down to restoring pride, getting back into the game with a man down.

Still not sure how we'll ever get a result here in the future. Hopefully Steinmann coming back in will give us some stability back.

But gotta be fair to Perth, they have a great team, and the best attack in the comp along Sydney FC

only two things kersey got right tonight - start and end of the game.

This was a Perth without (by far) their best player too

I think we have to be realistic and say we're not at the level of Perth, Sydney or City. Yes, we can compete, but over a season - I think 4th-5th is about where we're at

With Steinmann instead of Rufer and Hooper starting up-front with Ball instead of Sotirio on the right, we'd beat any team. 

It's a shame how much Rufer has regressed this season.

I'm not sure Rufer has regressed, honestly- he's playing very similar to how he was. Steinmann is just a much better player.

OK then its a shame how Rufer hasn't really kicked on when he looked like he was going to become a very good A-League level midfielder. At least Hooper showed what he brings to the team and should never be benched again if fit.

I hate it when a ref does that. 

Perth was the better team, but we did awesome for 1 man down.  With all 11 could we have made the comeback? Maybe, but we weren't given the chance to. 

Payne also falling over gives away that he did accidentally clip his heel when crossing over.  It can happen.  How promising was the attack that killed vs. how likely the contact was accidental, I don't think it was really a yellow, but when someone is clipped with acres of space in front, it's always a risk.  

The ref's complete inconsistency around cards is the massive issue. though.

A-League wide problem

Yeah, but you probably have to allow Perth had eased up. And were missing their best player. Hard not to agree on the night they were the better team. But we're competitive enough and I still think we aren't getting the best out of the front five yet. 

Rufer jogs around too much for my liking at times when he needs to be urgent. 

Let's see what they can do next week. 

I tend to  agree however i do think there is much more potential for us to improve the level we are playing at than the other 3 have. If we can do that then as we have proven we are more than capable of footing it with them.

The bigger issue is how for large parts of games we just cant seem to compete,late comebacks arnt going to get us there.

Getting thoroughly sick of the inconsistencies with yellow cards in the A league,lets not kid ourselves we arnt the only one to suffer. Despite what some claim its not the refs that are costing us games.

Thought we were very unlucky when it came to refereeing decisions tonight. Certainly no consistency. The corner that lead to there first goal looked like it was put out by them and should have been a goal kick. And in the lead up to there second goal the previous play they looked offside which wasn't called, they retained possession for a phase before scoring. If the off side had of been called, we would have had possession back and cleared our lines properly. Maybe just my yellow glasses, but it felt a bit harsh to be down 2 at half time. But I guess that's football sometimes, and it was good to see the fight we put in the second half.

Don't like Kersey as a ref though.

It could be risky, but I'm going into bat for Rufer here. I don't think he was bad at all, actually. It's a team game and credit to Perth in that they really closed the space that Davila usually loves and thrives operating in - he wasn't as regular an outlet for the midfield behind him. Perth forced us wide, taking their chances that they could more often than not control us out there and squeeze us when we inevitably looked for Davila inside. We'd then turn the ball over in middle/front third, often seemingly cheaply but really under quite some pressure of Kilkenny and Co. 

Letting in two before the break was annoying. Rufer not the only one at fault in any of the conceded goals. 

And, yep, referee's consistency was an issue - I think he got himself into a bind of quite early in realising he'd made an error or two and then attempting to square the ledger. But, doing that as a ref usually makes things even worse. 

replay on prime at 2.30

Is it worth a watch or too depressing?