R5 vs Melbourne Victory | Sun 10th Nov | 6:00pm | SS7

Nice point. Hopefully the lads recharge during the off week and get a win back at Westpac. 

hang on, didn't you say you turned on late?

watch the first bit and you'll be happier

and when the inevitable happened we did what was required

i say good, point good performance

Hooper woulda got it at the back post. Who was it nearly did?

nice to go one up then play ultra defensive for 80 mins. Pathetic from the uffie to not make the guys go for more goals- play negative football get negative results. 

^^^ Ah, finally we've got the SACK TALAY chorus going on - after we don't lose for a change! I suppose that's what you call "heightened expectations".

No, seriously, good grit from the guys; Marinovic is really making the people who thought he was a crap pick-up think twice now, I hope.

Really good point. They played their guts out. Game plan was sound, and could've poached it.

forget the endorsement. Always take a point away from home, esp agst Victory.

Therell be some tired legs. Great result. Performance wasnt amazing but 10/10 for effort. What was the deal with the ref blowing up when we were on the attack?!? 

Thought ball looked knackered, and a bit hesitant at times. Could have got his shot away or put some blocks in at times. Still, overall, very happy. 

we had lost all of our games

we have looked quite bad in doing so

we were away

they have at least 3x our budget

we are a new team made up of rookies and left overs

they are full of first rate imports

etc

etc

etc

Watched the game with a Brisbane supporter and his comments were neither of these teams are good enough to make the top 4

Have to agree.

We were not good enough today.

Sure worked hard for each other. Some good spirit and better organisation. Something to begin building from. 

wouldn’t mind seeing TAHW get a start in CB for Devere.

Hooper was certainly missed, could’ve been an interesting result. 

Fair, I still haven't seen us play for a sustained period in a way that makes me think we can do something this year. 

Will take the away point but we could have lost that game very easily- we looked good when we marked and pressed early which is why its confusing to just play for a draw when you're 1-0 up. 

Last 2 games have seen Marinoic become an early contender  for not just our player of the season but the A League too. Outstanding.  I have let any doubts go Doloras.

I absolutely agree with that statement. I've already resigned myself to enjoying watching the team improve to the point where we are functional, full of kiwis and pick up the odd win

Reg, they certainly not full of first rate imports.

I'd be absolutely rapped (and surprised) to be in top 4 form at ANY stage of this season. And there is no way I'd expect that this early, especially with the difficult run of games we've had, when trying to settle a new team, new coach. 

If we can work our way to around 5 or 6 later in the season, and be improving through the season, I think we'd have reason to be pleased enough. We've had about a half all up from Ball, Davilla has just got himself adjusted to the A League physicality, a bunch of kids learning pro football and D as well as attacking duties. Still a lot of room to improve. But I'm not expecting top 4.

And we could have won it. We were desperately unlucky especially with Rufer's shot near the end. I don't say we would have deserved to win it, but we didn't deserve to lose some other games.

It's not sack calls- it's the same we gave to Rufer up to now. 'We know you're better- do better!

When we attacked we threatened. Cacace is almost a star and some of the others have real potential to be so.

It's all relative ;-)

Well, I for one don't see that Talay did much wrong today. I don't get the calls about "negative play" when he gave Waine some decent minutes to show what he could do, and in the last 10 we could have snuck a win.

At least we didn't lose! Seeing us drop to a 5-4-1 setup for the last 15-20 minutes I did think we were asking for it. In saying that I think we worked extremely hard off the ball and it was good to see a relatively solid performance at the back.

Again impressed with Waine when he came on too, pretty hard for an 18 year old to be left up front by himself, but he looked to take on the Victory players and chased hard when out of possession - thankless task for his cameo, but I was impressed with his hunger and a good technique with close control, without too much help.

Good point and something to build on after our international break.

Waine at the edge of the box and ten in the box. 

Gamble almost worked. An earlier change might have turned the momentum our way earlier.

Some of the comments make me wonder if people think football is a one team game and that everything that happens in a game depends on how our coach decides to set up and has nothing to do with what the other team is trying to achieve.

There are two teams out there. Today, one was a lot better than the other. 

There are reasons for this, reasons that have nothing to do with Talay or the players. And given everything, Talay did everything he could to get us a result. He started by securing the flanks with a change of personnel and formation and he adjusted later in the game when it was so obvious that we could never compete with Victory for 90 minutes.

Ideally we would be playing like Real Madrid right now, but sorry folks that's not where we are at

Ball gave everything. 

As I've said before, this is the first season in a long while we can be confident that we'll (probably) not be kicked out of the league if we come last, so I'm trying to enjoy what can be enjoyed right now. Wins would be great, of course, but I'm happy right now to have a team that looks like it's trying and a coach who isn't doing/saying anything obviously stupid.

God I'm glad to have Cacace back.  He wasn't his usual awesome self, but he was still bloody good. 

Smart move by Talay to switch it to a 5-4-1 formation. Put one pacy striker up front and pushed his other pacy players wide and made defenders go deep, and then urged his players to quickly go up in counter attacks. We had many chances to win the game but got unlucky. I reckon if we still played 4 at the back, Victory could've scored another one or two the way they were pressuring. Good job Mr.Talay 

the guys can certainly play, and they have shown they can play well under uffie at times but for some bizzare reason we seem to revert to the negative defensive set up. Its like there no self belief in the club, as if we're aiming to not get wooden spoon instead of trying to win the competition.

anyways i hope you're all correct and ill be more than happy to eat my own shark if we start going on a winning streak.

I'm with Joey,

We were time wasting in the 49th minute for crying out loud. Those are not the actions of a team or a coach that has self-belief. It was negative and I believe contributed to us conceding.

Their goal was a little lucky with the rebound, but with nearly 70% possession, it was always going to come.

Our selections IMO show Talay is conservative, otherwise Wihongi should be starting ahead of Devere and Waine for Sotorio etc.

Devere is limited, physically and technically whereas Sotorio has an engine and can run, but not much else. Both do have experience at this level though, and that seems enough, even though there are better options out there.

i agree on the time wasting thing. 

i've got no time for it. football needs to be played quickly and with certainty. time wasting creates the opposite mindset and it spreads like wild fire through a team that is so inexperienced

i'll also agree that the negativity is there. but it's there for good reason. if it's still there in a few week's i'll agree that there is a problem

This was a lucky draw against a very average Victory team... Western United put 3 past them last week. Got to go for the 2nd goal to kill the game off but after taking the lead we stopped playing football, not keeping any meaningful possession. In fact I struggle to see what the strengths of this team are supposed to be? Not pressing particularly well, average on the counter attack, can't keep posession when necessary.

My only guess is Talay doesn't have the players in midfield he needs. I can see what he's trying to do and it comes off at times but not nearly enough to push for top 6 this year. Signing some good midfielders who can hold the ball up and pick good passes will surely help.

Hooper is a  worry. It was risky from an injury view point buying a player who had not played for so long. Hopefully he will be right in a fortnight for our next game.

Talay is not the problem. Our players are not quite good enough.

Rufer and Steinman had much improved games. And Cacace is a good player.

How do we know our players are not good enough if we don't give them the opportunity/permission and structure to be?

Perhaps Des has ruined me as a support or NZ teams as I expect better.

Really good to see some local players getting into the mix now. Hopefully, Hooper becomes a regular starter after the bye round. We really need to start scoring more goals from open play other than pens. Otherwise, its a wooden spoon for us this season. 

It's not ideal when a team is happy to settle for a draw in a 27 game league with no relegation but it's understandable in this case. I just hope that the license Talay has been given to rebuild the team over a few seasons doesn't lead to us being satisfied with draws and a 9th place finish this season.