R24 vs Brisbane Roar | Sun 25 March | 7pm | RoF

The amount of positivity on here after a loss and a draw is incredulous. I think the stress of the season is finally starting to tell and everyone has lost their minds.

More points would be nice but we played better than before which is an improvement.

We are playing better than we were sometimes bit of a stretch to say we are playing well.

Perhaps you are not too familiar with all the stretches ballane!

Your are right. I'm just happy that I don't have to watch shark football. I saw some nice combination upfront and seeing Burns was running right into 4 defenders and toying with them was pure joy.

We still a team of mostly players that can't win (you see I'm still angry) and I hope we get more AND better of the kind of Burnses, Krishnas, Ridentons, Foxes, Liberatos, AKs, Ljujics, Parackis and Singh's next year.

It's all relative and about expectations

From Kalezic's comment on the team being "not winners" to Burns' close shave against Roar where the ball bounced off the bar the wrong way in the last minute, there is a proof that a lot can be achieved with pretty much the same set of players by managing them differently.

Most, if not all of us will never have experience of coaching/managing athletes at the very pinnacle of the game so its a little hard to understand how those little things make all the difference. 'The top 2 inches' is often quoted in relation to athletic performance. Its the little things that make teams/players better than their opponents and I think we're seeing that with the team.

Boza on the A League program said he'd enjoyed the game, the 'Nix had played well, and probably would have deserved the win if Burns' shot had gone in.  Also said he'd enjoyed the standard of the young NZ players.  I'm paraphrasing, but that's pretty close.

I think it's justified to say we are playing a heck of a lot better.  And not just with our own hopeful, rose tinted eyes.

Sure, it was a bottom mid table side we were up against.  And we'd need to be better again for a top 4 chance, over a full season.  But it was a heck of a lot better than we've been seeing.  

I'd stopped bothering going, because they were just wasting my time.  But on a half decent day at the stadium I'd be back supporting them again if they kept playing like that.

No need to be modest. That "bottom mid table side" has just thrashed the Jets.