R23 vs Sydney FC | Sat 12th Mar | 7:15pm | SS4

Coming on when your team is being bossed all over the park is never easy for anyone. He wasn't great but niether was anyone else (aside from Siggy).

Beautiful! Never douted the guys for one second.

Seem to do quite well in Sydney, perhaps Cronulla riots wasn't such a bad idea.

Riera should have had a yellow card for a foul that has probably put the player out for the season. Just a  thug.

Yeah agree with that one incident. Aside from that, much better than your average a-league ref.

Also Ryall going studs into Doyle. But yes I thought his approach with the not giving fouls just cos a player hits the deck you have to blow the whistle was good. And he was consistent.

Riera I thought was slow, but not thuggish and Rudin said the same at halftime.

Siggy was the inspiration we have missed. Mcglinchey superb first half. Second half was like they were all palying in 40 degrees heat. Doyle another very good game too, and Dura.
Such clinical finishes today, when last week they were gifted chances and didn't know what on earth to do with them.

You would not expect Mark Rudan (an ex-Sydney player) to be even-handed and yet he said that he did not think Riera was trying to do anything horrible. Should have been a yellow, he said - and fair enough, but there was no baying for Riera's blood.

Sometimes a tough defensive work is what you need - and that is what Riera did. If anyone call him a "thug" then the same has to be said for majority of A-League players, especially those marking Roly.

It possibly shows the hard tackling defenders union loyalty is stronger than the ex-Sydney FC  players one!

McG man of the match for me. Doyle and McG a good combo in the left (though Sydney were complete pants)

What a complete load of crap Leggy. That is not a thuggish challenge at all. Ryall's was worse. Riera was slow and clumsy, there was no intent there.

Both probably deserved yellows.

It looked to me like the foul on Doyle left him sufficiently worse for wear for our left-wing attack to be swapped for the action on the right hand side in the second half.

Great first half, terrible second half!!

McG probably had his best game and dribbled / ran with purpose which caused problems... don't know what happened at half time. We couldn't muster a shot or string 4 passes.

Played to hold on.

Nice win. Powell and Watson seem to have a really good understanding, especially considering they've only played a handful of games together.

Sydney's first half performance was diabolical though. They were playing like a hungover social team.

Second half WeeMac was too slow to release the ball for the counter.

shark shark shark shark shark

Really you do try my patience Phoenix 

Last weeks bets Phoenix 3-1 tick Roly to score us to win tick Head to head Phoenix tick

This week 0 Faaarrrrrkkkkkk LOL

Please bring it home for once.Sick of Brandon seeing all the good stuff,

Good win with great first half - clinical finishes - though Sydney were dreadful in first 45.

Holding on in second half worked as it turned out, but we were awful.

Siggy was immense.  

Good to win against Sydney. Great first half, second half totally forgettable. Siggy clearly promoting his book 'Fully commited'.

Steve, I went and saw a witch Dr and he cast a spell on Brandon, releaving him of his bad luck at away games, he is now our lucky mascot apparently. 

What a fantastic weekend, Phoenix win, QPR win, Brentford lose (To QPR 3-0), Foolham lose and then Chelsea lose. It just doesn't get any better.

On a more serious note, our away form this season seems to be better than our home form. Surely, we as fans, have not not demanded too much but have been rather patient whilst watching a rebuild taking place. 

Away and home form has both been sharke to be fair.

Great win. But Jesus that 2nd half was near unwatchable.

I agree that the second half performance, ball retention wise was awful (Roly esp!). However, although I'm surprised Ernie decided to drop back and sit on the lead (I'm presuming he decided to), it does show a lot of faith in our defensive structures and they totally lived up to it.

Sydney didn't play the team that shut us down before. 

They were on the bench. I think we would have found it much more difficult if Faty and Tavares had been on and maybe Sydney might have pinched an early goal if their eventual goal scorer had been on too. 

I think it was a good effort, but to be the team we want to be and one of the Adelaide/City/Roar/WSW level we need to keep going up in quality and variety of game plans. 

That said I've been pleasantly surprised by Watson. He's been a good plan B, has an instinctive shot and has put himself about in this cameo. Don't know what options we have, but a goal scorer signed up is better than a never a striker. Sure it would be nice to have a Berisha-like finisher and whether a champion side can have both Watson and Powell is a matter of opinion, but they do both bring something different and have scored goals of late.

and very well taken goals at that

So good to see Siggy back. Lifted the side big time.

Really rarked up the backline and mids

Is there any way I can watch a full replay online?

There was some chat about torrents of games in another thread. 

I think it was a private, invite only network though. 

Not sure you could do it through other means. 

Brandon said on the podcast he wasn't going to this one due to work commitments.  Probably what made the difference

I'm looking for a link to Ernies post match.  Can anyone help me out?

On the a league website there is a video of Arnold having a moan. There is about 30 seconds of Ernie at the end.

Rumour out of Sydney is we cost Arnie his job...

Farina available?

I feel no sympathy

Much regret I didn't get on this.

My "$1 on the Nix to win" is now smiling all the way to the (piggy) bank

What a strange game that was, glad it was us on the receiving end of some terrible defending for once!  Watson looks useful, I thought it was a complete joke he got another chance but he might be playing his way into another contract for next season at this rate

He's been quite clinical with his finishing. But his touch is soooo bad. And his passing isn't much better.