R8 vs WSW, Sunday 1 Dec, 5 pm

I'm not happy because I've watched 270 minutes of football in person this season and seen us score once, simple as that really.

I don't know many football fans, other than people on here, who'd be too pleased with that.

And yes I do know we are perhaps deserving of more points / goals than what we have.

Also, 5pm on a Sunday is a sh*tty time for a football game.

Mooy deserved his for stopping us from being able to take a free kick for standing right in front of the ball.

Junior, stop twisting my words. You know that's not what I said.

Though I'd have much rather watched a 3-3 draw than another 0-0 draw, that I can assure you of.

No Jeff, Junior inferred I would prefer a defeat where we scored.

Are you telling me you would not prefer 3-3 over 0-0? Yeah you still get one point, but you get a bit more entertain been for your $$$.

*entertainment it should've said in my last post!

Well I'm sorry but I pay to go to games in order to be entertained, that's what football is supposed to be about. Football with zero goals is not as entertaining. Of course I'd rather we would be the ones scoring the goals.

Also, going back to Lia, I've just looked up his stats on 442 stats zone app - attempted 4 tackles all game, 2 successful. 64% pass completion rate too. Hardly setting the midfield alight.

Maybe we should make it 3 points for a goal and 1 for an almost goal (on the sides) - that would make it more entertaining. Power play as well.

Maybe I should change the post to say I am not happy because we haven't won in ages! I genuinely can't remember the last time I saw a win at Westpac and that's pretty depressing.

... so would you rather we win ugly than draw or lose with style?

27th December, 2012. Comeback win against Heart when we won 3-2. That was the last time we won at Westpac.

Interesting to note that in eight games we have only played one game against the other bottom four sides.  

What do we expect when the club is run by owners who know nothing about football. Taking three games away from Wellington this season with two of them at the starts of the season is the perfect way to disenfranchise and alienate the fan base the matter the most. Forget about Auckland, Christchurch and Napier. Tell them to get their own f-ing clubs. 

The owners are out to make a quick buck and are taking the wrong approach to enable long term security and prosperity imho. We are the fans that matter and if you get your tactics wrong, a fair chunk of supporters will become disillusioned with the club. It's like being in a relationship with someone that cheats on you with two different people and comes back to you in a month a expects you to be cool with that! Sort of I guess...

However I must state that this is not the only reason for a poor crowd figure but in my opinion it plays a part in the whole outcome. I may be wrong though. Just my 2c.

That's pretty funny Jeff - I am rarely here when we are winning and playing well?

There's just one flaw in that argument...

Okay, I am seriously asking for feedback on this, since Jeff thinks I'm such a crazy person for thinking that we wasted good money on Hernandez. Assuming that today was a terrible day for him (I don't think anyone would disagree), what has he done so far this season that makes people think he's going to be value for money, let alone approaching his old Tard form? Really. I want to know. Will be interesting on Friday without him; I would be tempted to put Iffy on in his role to see what happens.

Personally I was much more impressed by Cunningham today.

I would rather we won ugly than drew 0-0 or lost with 'style'. At this point in time at least, with 0 wins on the board.

Don't forget that under Ricki we were just losing ugly most of the time towards the end.

Damn, I missed that Heart game in December - I think the last time I watched us win in person was the first game of last season!

OK, so apart from semantics over entertainment value, can we agree that this season's scapegoats are:

1) Whoever it was that decided to have home and away games on at the same time as the AW qualifying games and as a result not actually having any home town advantage (however slim it might appear at the moment), and

2) The new stadium management with its piss poor music, pre-match videos and health and safety messages from the players.

3) Ricki and Terry - just for old times sakes.

4) NZF - bound to have some role even if it is just FDJ as commentator.

Dolores - I can agree with you for the first time ever: Hernandez has been very disappointing. He's barely mustered a shot on target all season. Today's miss was a real shocker.

I do however feel that if he can just finally score, we may see the old Hernandez a bit more.

n.b. last post contains traces of post-modern irony

I agree JV - results have not quite gone our way and a lot of them we could have got more points out of.  Add to that we have had a lot of games against the top sides as I posted above.

It's just the lack of finishing which has stopped us having maybe as much as 7 more points (and taking more off others), being well up the table and with a good run of lower placed teams still to play.  

Also agree with Whitby - the travelling circus (and limited pre-season) has made it very hard to get a new game plan and new players really humming.  I'm concerned about our front third, but it could get better with some more play.  So long as guys like Carlos and Kenny don't start packing sads.  They need to keep their team unity right now and keep believing.  Ernie's doing a great job. 

There is something not working for the Costa Ricans....not sure what it is but they seem often to be on a seperate wavelength to the rest of the team.  People bagged Cunningham but watching it live he made lots of very intellegent runs, short sprints into space and he was rarely given the ball. At the end of the first half he gave Manny a real spray after he darted down the touch and Manny just hit his pass into the guy standing 10 metres in front of him. There was also lots of arm waving and talking before the second half.....Carlos talking to Fenton and Muscat.Obviously there is some lack of connection going on. Might be a language problem, who knows. Carlos looked more and more frustrated as the game wore on.

Part of our problem is we are not bossing the midfield. Lia, Hicks and Reira are all OK. But there is a sense they are journeyman players who are basically squad players but are playing full time. There is a lack of us taking the game by the throat and imposing our style on it. I think this is what Ernie was eluding to in the DoomPost. He said the team lacked positive aggression. He wanted more drive and passion. Certainly to me the team looks timid on attack. Ernie sited an example when Hicks was cut down in the box against Sydney and nobody screamed for a penalty. Maybe they are just lacking confidence and once the goals start coming they will really push on.

Can't complain about the style of play though. Having sat through some really turgid stuff over the years at the ROF  Ernies game is really entertaining. 

Austin - agree somewhat on Cunningham. Made a few runs but we were far too slow to make the passes, and when we did, they were not into the correct area.

Pretty fair result overall, I wouldn't go so far to say that we dominated, but we certainly competed well for much of the game. Backline was very good, midfield is still a bit panicky under pressure. But considering the players we have in there that's no big surprise, and we're managing to hold it without too many bad breakdowns in there.

I said after last week that we needed more from Hernandez. And than he goes out and honks the joint up in the first half like you wouldn't believe. I don't know if he's been carrying that injury for a while, but we ain't going anywhere if he doesn't improve on his performances so far. Cunningham looked like the player from the first few games he played for us, disappointing follow up from his last week's performance. Stein is a good footballer, but he looks completely un-threatening on his own. He did set up a couple of very good chances for teammates, but we really need more from our forwards.

Ifill is still easily the best player on this team, and that's saying a lot. And showing in the results, too.