R3 vs Jets Sunday 5pm McLean Park SS2

Had a great time in Napier great crowd, great pub, great weather but glad its only a short drive can't afford to travel to other home games sorry. One gate entry was a bit appallling lucky we got there early, was also hard to get food and watered so just had beer?

I thought good teams go through the midfield and then in the last third, you choose left or right flank? You boss the midfield with and then left and right backs do overlap runs and create the space. If you go through the midfield as long as possible you automaticly create more options than going over the flanks where you only can pass to the middle, make sense to me. So we are doing it right, except the part we suck at the final third. 

Jets are doing wrong, it may look better on those graphs, but they did not had a single goal in three games. Maybe the Jets had to go over the flanks because the Nix forced them to that, if that is the case, we are doing that right, see theory above. Maybe that is why get get the point.

Ernie's said he will work this week on the midfield and the attack, he sees the problem. It's not that the players individual suck (or the occasional <insert scapegoat here> bad pass), they just need more time to learn and execute Ernie's game plan.

You don't have to be a "key" player for a national team to do well in the A-League which is perhaps English League One standard (certainly not Championship level). A decent but not outstanding player playing at a reasonable level (e.g. Ifill who was certainly no star at his clubs in England)  often does well in the A-League.

Huysegems was a very good player in his prime and played for very good sides in Belgium (Lierse) and the Dutch Eredivisie (over 100 games for Feyenoord, Alkmaar and Twente). At AZ Alkmaar they were a top-three side at the time and made the UEFA Cup semis. He was signed by Feyenoord after they lost Kuyt and Kalou, to stiffen the attack. FC Twente finished as high as second in the Eredivisie in his time there and made the Dutch Cup Final.

However he's been dogged by serous injuries for a few years which saw him struggling to start games on returning to his original club Lierse in Belgium and so ended up here. The A-League would suit his attempt to regain fitness with the long off-season and fewer games then Europe. He didn't play 15 times for Belgium by accident, and sure, he was never its star player, but it was not a period when Belgium had a lot of good players.

Ifill showed early promise in England but was never a star player for any teams such as Millwill or Sheffield United, and though he played at a decent level, mostly in the Championship, by the time he caught the flight to Wellington, had been struggling with injuries and not getting game time for Crystal Palace.

By the way, Ifill was a Barbadoes international (somewhat inferior team to Trinidad and Tobago you have him playing for) and probably was their star player - although that wouldn't be hard (they lost 9-0 on aggregate to the USA in 2010 World Cup qualifying). He made intermittent appearances in only three years, 2004, 2006, 2008, mostly against the likes of St Kitts and Anguilla.

Kenny Cunningham and Hernandez were amongst the best players in the Costa Rican league when they played there and deserved their national team call-ups. Lets remember Cunningham played as recently as June in competitive matches for a Costa Rica side that finished second in CONCACAF WC qualifying.

Hernandez is certainly the only import we've had with a decent international pedigree for his country, and certainly was a major player for them. His international CV is impressive:

Costa Rica: 35 apps, 7 goals

The stats for him on Wikipedia are very incomplete - rather check out his page on FIFA.com here:

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/statisticsandrecords/players/player=182587/index.html

including: 2001 FIFA U-20 World Cup, Argentina (all four games incl. vs. Netherlands, Ethiopia, Ecuador and Czechs in the round of 16)

2004 Athens Olympic Games (all four games vs. Morocco, Iraq, Portugal and Argentina in the quarter-final).

World Cup qualifying:  9 apps in 2006 qualifying incl. against Mexico, USA, Trinidad, Canada, Honduras, Panama, Guatamala

(Costa Rica qualified directly as third place side in CONCACAF behind USA, & Mexico);

4 apps in 2010 qualifying vs. Mexico, USA, Honduras, El Salvador (called-up for the final round of qualifying & Costa Rica made it to play-off vs. Uruguay as fourth team  in CONCACAF). Missed the play-offs due to injury.

International goals include in two World Cup qualifiers against the USA 2006, and  a winner against France in a friendly  in 2010.

His most recent appearances for Costa Rica were in three friendlies in 2011.

A couple of moans the club / McLean park need to take on board if the fixture happens again:

1) Only one gate open and about eight young kids collecting tickets at the gate and about three or four security staff doing bag checks. I got to the ground at around 4:20 and only just got inside to see teams coming onto the pitch. It would have been a lot worse if Thundersticks had not opened another gate for those you had "physical tickets". Those with self printed tickets had to wait.

2) Beer stall only selling beer. If you wanted a beer and a soft drink you had to go to two seperate places.

3)No Eftpos at beer stalls

4)Do Food "Caravans" really cut it at sporting events anymore?

The little stand at the end of the pitch was great and at least the atmosphere in there sounded pretty good. Not so sure about the rest of of the ground though.

The lack of goals was a bit disappointing, but the game could have gone either way, but the game itself was not the worst I have seen. No one has mentioned the shout for a penalty we had in the second half when Manny was brought down making a run into the box. I have not yet seen a replay yet but seemed like penalty imo.

Probably pretty even overall, they had a few good efforts and took some excellent keeping from Mossy and a goal line clearance from Leo to keep them out. Carlos Carlos Carlos Hernandez hit the wood work twice and an excellent save from Birrighitti denied Stein.

Manny and Lia were probably as bad as each other in the centre of the park in terms of giving the ball away. Ifill got clattered a few times early on and never really looked likely. Leo had his hands full with Burns who was probably the biggest threat for Newcastle. Caira looked okay defensively but still to prove his worth moving forward. Riera looked good when he cam on and made a great ball and all tackle!

A long trip in a day and result a bit disappointing. Would I do it again? Better effing believe it!

Completely agree about the situation at the gate Jeff. The Fever group turned up at 4.30pm and only just had enough time to get through the line and be able to set the banner up for the start of the game.

love big pete's posts - the super informed, last word, bar none, on everything, always.

Some good posts Pete and Jeff. The only reason I'd be ok to head back to Napier is the distance from home, Napier and Palmy are much less hassle than Hamilton or say New Plymouth. There is no way we are going to anymore away home games this season. We can't afford it.

The Stadium was a bit of a shambles, the lack of eftpos had everyone moaning. Also the gate issues were bad I'd like to know who was in charge as someone should have a word.

Do we know how the players feel about these away home fixtures? The Nix have to do a hell of a lot of traveling compared to most of the other teams I'm sure they don't like the extra travel?

I reckon if the weather had been as sunny in Welly and the Club actually put a bit more effort into looking at more innovative advertising we could have seen similar numbers at RoF.

Get the impression they don't like them too much, but can hardly say as such. Extra few days away from family, additional travel and promo work on top of what they already do. 

I thought it was probably our worst overall performance so far. There were some positives though. I thought Riera showed he is comfortable at this level and I would like him to start. Siggy and Durante (and Boxall for that matter) have all been solid every time.

However Ernie needs to get the attack sorted and at the moment he looks like he is still undecided on the combination. I think it is pretty obvious that you can't play Ifill, Hysugems, Hernandez and Brockie at the same time, they just don't collectively have enough energy and mobility. And I'm not convinced Cunningham should be in the team but I am tempted to stick with him for a couple of weeks. In saying that I wouldn't mind if Rufer, Ridenton or Hicks were given some/more game time.

I hope Fenton is back, I think he could add a bit to the attack from RB. I generally think Leo gets to much criticism but he struggled a lot in that game.

Not directly. Just an impression I got from fairly brief conversations - so could be wrong, and I'd take it more as speculation than truth. On the other hand a couple of them who came to the thirsty whale seemed to be enjoying themselves. 

Usually at other events at McLean Park (cricket and rugby) they have 4 or 5 gates open. and I didn't see the food stalls but usually they have quite a few under the harris stand and behind the graeme lowe stand. So the only conclusion I can come to is the organisers were trying to save money, and cut back on the food and by limiting it to one gate. But someone must of surely known that they wouldn't of been able to get the expected crowd through the one gate in time. The one gate situation was the biggest clusterfuck I've seen at McLean Park. 

But they'll make themselves heard every 2nd post. 

Indeed, my contribution above is a bit "Devil's Advocate" - I just wouldn't want to think Ernie is getting a free ride for mistakes and oversights that we roasted our last coach for.

To be fair, I don't think ricki was roasted for them until it became evident that he wasn't learning or evolving from them. 

"We won't be anywhere near 10th spot." Sorry Leggy, but I'm also playing devil's advocate (just for the crack).

Jeez,  the forums sounding like this devils avocado!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYniD_fNUzc

Yep you knocked it exactly on the head - "the game did seem rather like a pre-season one trying to sort out combinations and tactics"

This is our pre-season in effect, and we have to wear it. Watched our front players from just behind the stand goal in the second half, and they had no understanding going on. But that will come once Ernie settles on his starting eleven. Was shocked pre game to hear Ifill was starting. He's our impact guy. We need speed out wide, and have a few players now who can do that. Have high hopes Fenton will provide that on the right anyway. Think Cunningham will then come in to play.

At what point in the proceedings did we have a striker in a position to recevie the ball from our  wing backs before they had to turn and look for a mid field option. ( most times the striker option was back to goal ) Our was I at a different game after having to consume  rugby beer!

Some of my thoughts on Sunday's game

http://aleftfootforstandingon.blogspot.co.uk/

Always makes me laugh when people complain about the food at the stadium. If you want decent food, thats what restaurants and takeaway places are for. There's plenty of time for a feed before the game. I left the stadium after the game and drove to Dickens Street in town and had probably the best kebab I've ever had. I never buy food at the ground due to its crapness and that I can go two hours without food.

that is nonsense. Ricki had 6 seasons, and most people were pro Ricki until his tactics (or lack of plan B) became tiresome. 

Troll advocate.