R19 v Heart Sun 16th Feb 5pm #FlushItDownTheDunny

yep, some due from whiteman's valley - i doubt we'll get close to 9k again after that performance.

<img src="http://forums.yellowfever.co.nz/assets/ernie.jpg" alt="Ernie" /> <img src="http://forums.yellowfever.co.nz/assets/ernie.jpg" alt="Ernie">

They didnt have to and shouldnt have

terrible

We have a problem....and its a biggy.

The cracks that were evident against the Jets have opened into chasms. The loss of Riera has exposed our whole midfield setup. Lia has been great further up the field but it is evident that he does not have the skill set to do the Riera role. He lacks the vision, pace and the short passing game to do the job. The back four were exposed against the Jets.....they were shredded today.

In addition the loss of Riera means we have to play either of the kids Hicks or Ridenton as first choice midfielders. They have promise but it is too big an ask to get two youngsters just starting their A-league careers to boss the midfield. Today we bought on a 17 yo and expected him to do a job against Engelaar.....a guy who has 70?? + caps for Holland. 

The Heart played an excellent game....they crowded Carlos and took him out of the game. The rest of our midfield fell apart under their pressing game. I didn't get Ernies setup at all. Brockie started as striker and Stein played left wing first half. The Stein/ Carlos/Boyd combo has been great for us recently. Brockie did SFA apart from passing backwards. He gave the ball away three times in about 90 seconds just before half time. At least when Boyd came he introduced a bit of zip to our game....he makes good runs at pace.,Ernie then took off Kenny who was having a bad day and then moved Stein back to left central mid to plug that gap.....and he saw little ball after that.

 Ernie can address todays lethargy,....he can put that down to just a bad day at the office. How he sorts out the Riera loss will play a big part in how the rest of our season unfolds.

Rough one, just one of those days. Guys just didn't have it. It happens, we'll be back, but still a massive bummer.

Next home game isn't till March freaking 9th, i think, probably looking at 6k or so for that.

The GF, who i barely managed to convince to come to the game, said that the Phoenix "didn't even look like professionals," and that seemed to sum it up for me.

Sigh.

They say you cant beat wellington on a good day.... but you can fucking thrash them.

Writing was on the wall in the first 5 mins. The big No 4 looked class, and proved it with a great strike as soon as it come his way.

After that we were completely outplayed in midfield, they robbed us of the ball like candy from a baby, and then counter attacked with pace and venom. They played one touch football all day, we took several touches knocked it backwards in front of their 10 man defence.

The two midfielders killed us, and Williams and the 23 made great runs forward and were found beautifully. Finishing was class. It was men against boys.

To be fair to the Heart, they were excellent.

We were terrible, 0/10 for the lot of them I/m afraid.

Watched it on tele and have to say I felt sorry for you guys - what a time to pull a stinker. Can't simply be down to the absence of Riera. So many passes went astray, particularly in midfield, and there seemed little forward pressure. Stein tried hard but did Brockie actually fire a shot in anger? I think Krishna would have been a better option. When the Phoenix players got within shooting range there was always a Heart defender right on them. But at the other end the Phoenix defence seemed flat-footed and seemed to leave them far too much space to take great shots, which they duly did. For all his gesturing, Durante didn't marshal his backline very well.

I know there's going to be lots of gnashing of teeth over this result and it'll mean the extra three thousand casuals who turned up won't be there next home game - but this season has been full of positives. Whatever happens it has been a big step up from last season so try to accent the positive. The A League is such a topsy turvy league this year you'll probably go and stomp on the next opponent.

I see ACFC put ten past the kids at Southern United. Now that really was a thumping. Imagine how they feel.

i think this is the first time i have seen a whole team play like shit, not one player looked like they had an average game, it was across the board shit. Ridenton was barely a fit sub for hicks and having a slow combo of brockie-stien-carlos is terrible.

That was the least fun a Fever Zone has ever been. Think we were all gobsmacked.

Kudos to whoever started up "We Want One". Pretty appropriate and a not-too-tantrumy way to show our displeasure.

Heart (and Engelaar in particular) put on a clinic today. But still, we did let them.

I actually think the absence of Riera can't be underestimated. Vinnie is a ball playing midfielder, not a harrying, pressing, tackling defensive one. We should probably give urgent consideration to pushing Manny back in there.

You will struggle to see a game where the ball was given away so many times thereby exposing us defensively. Gerhardt did a veey good job on Carlos just basically marked him out of the game.

Engleraar is a beast. Good touch for such a big strong bloke and that first goal.... he knocked the spots of the ball.

On the way in , Jr said to me " Dad , they'll have to watch Williams today". I'd had a couple of shandies by that stage and thought " Yeah right. " How the hell he'd picked that I have no idea.

On our way home he said " why doesn't Merrick put Manny back as holding mid and put Caira back at left back". I'd had a few more shandies by that stage and couldn't really answer him. 

That game highlighted how thin our squad is.

I get the owners want to focus on growing our own and that's to be lauded however that must be balanced by a spine of experience and the touches of class import spots should bring.

We got lucky with Riera but Krishna has not worked out.

Next off season we'll probably have two import spots available - Ifill's and Krishna's. We'll have Ifill's, Bertos', Krishna's and, I'm assuming, Totori's (he would have been bought out ?) salarys. That should be enough to get a couple of decent imports. I hope the owners don't go all Steptoe and Son with recruitment.

In the meantime we'll have to make do with our light weight mid-field and horribly out of form striker (Brockie).

wtf

David Williams hattrick.

David.

Williams.

Hattrick.

F*** me dead.

Have to say that all season I have said that Williams is the worst striker in the league-- and he gets 3 today. Have not changed my mind.

So does anyone else think that, since we are missing Riera, it may be time to bring Caira back into left back and Muscat into the mids?

It seems clear that neither Hicks not Ridenton is good enough to be part of a midfield pairing.

Not sure if that is theme of this thread, I don't really want to read through the angst, depressed enough as it is.

That's the first game Ernie's been out coached, and without Riera we are in a whole lot of pain. Lia can't carry youngsters, he can't even do his own job when he's required to be a DM.

But fancy that - get on a decent run of form, get a reasonable day that isn't Xmas or anniversary weekend and bobs your uncle, we pretty much got to 10k despite the entertainment competition in town.  So it can be done, but unfortunately we didn't put on the show to carry it forward. 

Agree with everybody that the squad is too thin, but also agree a lot of progress has been made.    

Moss bagging?  One error, otherwise fine.  I guess people have to let their frustration out on something.

Felt real sorry for Ridenton.  No real support from those around him and their game plan was to beat up and rob our mid-field (and their usual counter attacking game).  Just a kid thrown to the wolves.  I hope he has the sort of personality that will bounce back well.  

Slightly off topic, but according to One News, "The Wellington Phoenix have lost an opportunity to go into the A-league football playoffs zone" today.

I want to know who puts their news together sometimes...

Open him up a sports betting account ASAP! How old is he?

On a similar note, my 5 year old daughter had me in stiches. Usually I have the games on tv (don't live in wellington) and she might be around but never actively watching. Today she walks in to the living room and Brockie is on the screen... Followed by 'oh Brockies back.....(long pause)....... I don't know why he's back'. It was pretty amazing, I'm so proud.

My wife who doesn't follow football at all noticed how often they mentioned his name at the start if the season, and would take the piss out of the commentators when they talked about him, so she must of picked up on that. And possibly the comments I have made about him at times this year... Got to be careful what you say in front of kids! They take it all in...

Apologies for grammar writing on my shitty phone.

Hi guys!

Erm, WTF was that performance? Jeezus Christ.

What I noticed today (on tv) was the extreme lack of intensity, everything felt so flat. From the whistle not just after we went behind.

And that strip was just terrible... You can do a charity strip and keep it yellow.

Maybe one of the Indian bookmakers in town for the cricket paid the team a visit.  We really were that bad, it's hard not to joke about it.

Edit.. Didn't realise someone had already made the same joke when I posted this...

I was hoping we were past this kind of thrashings.  We as fans do not deserve it.  The owners and sponsors certainly don't deserve it.   The Nix didn't look like a football team today. All the hardwork to try and get more fans to the games will now go out the window.

For the record, I didn't mind the playing strip and I hope Surf Lifesaving receive loads of money from the auction.