R9 v Brisbane Roar | Sat 22th Dec | 7:35 | RoF

We were never going to miss Ridenton, he was nothing special. 

Yeah but you could have said the same thing about Rufer before this season. At least two coaches have seen enough of something they like in Ridenton to pick him in their starting 11.

Just celebrate the fact that 2 young NZ midfielders, are developing in a professional league. Hardly an area of strength for the national team. 

Phoenix players get yellow cards, Roar players get play waved on. Can the referees please try and be a little more discrete when trying to deny the Nix any hint of fair play??

That said, the whole team delivered. Some of the interpassing was excellent and when the ball was lost, players chased back and backed up. I was moving around the ground cause the young fella doesn't like too loud a noise - well done Fever - in fine voice tonight. Anyway, a lot of the users here reside in and close to the zone. But some of the comments I heard from various other fans that would not be on here, there is a consistency. All were slamming the referee for allowing the Roar to foul, but more importantly were the comments about the style and how much effort the Nix players were putting in. I am really hoping word of mouth and TV will get the crowds back because for me, that team deserves the magical 10k every week if the continue to play this style with this effort.

MERRY NIXMAS FARKEN!

Yay - Great result and the team improvement as well the individuals improvement is great to see. We are no longer ‘bullied’ off the ball easilly and I really enjoy seeing us not panic at the back so much and just hoof the ball forward - many times we win and build it up well.

I still think we lack good creativity attacking around the penalty area. Often gettin behind but our forwards are just runnning square into the box so any cross would be a lottery. need options ie drag back (like Roar goal), near and far post runs. Really keen to see Burns score as he works tirelessly and think his confidence would go up greatly with a goal and hopefully it would open the doors for him to get many more as we know he is capable of. 

Krishna - sorry to all his fans..really good individual player and fast but would love to see him release the ball sooner when he has back to their goal. Great this week where he kept onside better - last week was really frustrating the number of offsides he gave away. I think he is going down so often the refs are not having any real sympathy for him now.

Great win and long may it continue..looking forward to Mariners game at home and increasing crowd - they deserve it.

Think you might find Roy is going down because he keeps getting cleaned up,sorry dont get the individual player comment. Do you not see the amount of covering back he does for his team mates. Give me a striker everyday who is a little individual its one of the things that marks the difference between the good ones and the so so.

The way Singh is playing you have to assume he has a bright future in a better league. But, then again, that's what most of us said about Rojas.

As if Bench warming has really sent his stock flying high. (I mean Rojas). Singh is very much a developing talent. Is it just me or is he getting harder to nudge off the ball now by the opposition? I though he held them off quite well yesterday.

Watching Singh play last night it felt like we were seeing something special. Name a single other player in the a league his age who can be as influential in a game as he can. That free kick was ice cold too. That puts him on what, 6 goals and 2 or 3 assists in 21 a league games? Crazy stuff from a 19 year old who 12 months ago wasn't getting any first team minutes

How you can be Mad Online at Roy when he's causing havoc for their defence, getting cleaned out and still managing to drop deep, collect and pass all game is beyond me. He's also spending a fair amount of time chatting with Singh on the pitch, I noticed it a lot in the TV coverage last night - don't think Singh could have a better on pitch mentor than Roy.

I really enjoyed hearing the entire crowd shouting Singh's name as he went off. He must have heard it and felt proud. He put in a fantastic shift and deserves all the plaudits given him. A player whom even at this stage, you would pay gate fee just to watch him playing football.

stat show on the telly during last lights games we are the most fouled team in the league - 137 times. I'll bet that we are high up on the rankings of collecting yellow cards.

And I bet the stat on how many cards yellow or red given against the players fouling ours is almost minimal.

The stat was that we have committed the most fouls in the league. Fouls conceded.

Yip, we've had the most yellow cards against us too.

Never mind the fouls on Krishna, it's the lack of whistle for fouls on Fenton that makes me laugh. First the non-penalty against Perth, than the blatant trip on him in the lead up to Sydney's goal, than yesterday literally thrown sideways off the ball, this just minutes after Cacace copped a yellow card for the very same thing. 

He must be starting to think there is something about him that ref's don't like!

dont’t dsagree, he is getting chopped because of his skill / speed and also tracking back well to cover as well pressuring high. As I said, I think an area he can improve which would also speed up our attack, is if he releases the ball quicker when he has back to their goal which will free him up and stop the player he often eventually passes to, being as closed down. Facing goal - one on one I would like him to have a go absolutely back himself. He certainly isnt the only on that has 1 too many touch’s on occassions but overall I am enjoying watching them be a ‘team’ and working for each other on and off eh ball...well done Rudan!!!

Thought the Cacace yellow card was obvious, it was quite a clear professional foul to stop Brisbane on the break. 

Not convinced the disallowed goal actually was offside. Are there any good angles/replays of it?

Yeah I was surprised that people were saying it was "clearly offside". Honestly looked extremely close by the looks of things, and genuinely could have been called onside. Maybe that's why the disallowed goal wasn't in the highlights package the HAL released?

Well, into Chrissy equal 4th subject to the Adelaide result. It’s really humming now. How good is this? 

Huge game Friday night against Victory. Expect The Victory to watch plenty of Singh and Mandi video this week. Victory usually have Ansell/Valieri eating up space against us so Rudes will need a plan b & c. 

News this morning out of Germany that Leckie got injured and will miss Asian Cup. Doubt Graham Arnold will consider Burnsy as he’ll probably add a young gun like Goodwin or McGree but you never know. Burnsy was very good in the Perth and Sydney games and no doubt Arnold and Kenny Lowe (Arnold Assistant) noticed. But I think Nix will be fine. 

Good to hear Rudes mentioned the older pros’ around Singh in the presser. 

The angle was poor. I thought he may have been level but it wasn't clear and obvious error

Just watch the replay of Williams goal. It came immediately from another foul by that number 6 on Krishna. Lol. 

whoops, my own bias meant I misunderstood that. Fouls conceded is clearly dependent on the ref actually calling them agaist the other team. Which in the case of last night they weren't. Cacacae's was definately yellow, but then mosyt of the tackles against singh and krishna shoulad have been too,

Went down for my first home match this season and we managed to drag another mate along and he really enjoyed it last night. Roy and Singh were incredibly sharp last night and impressive, as was the Fever. Definitely think the crowd numbers will pick up if we keeping riding the wave. Great to see Williams scoring his first for the Nix as well.

Someone has to tell Williams where to go after scoring. He was running in circles in the box. I thought the rule is to run, knee slide towards the fever zone.

Last night's second half should be released on Blue Ray as a commemorative special edition. Krishna for MVP. Singh for president. Fenton for prime minister. Taylor for archbishop of Canterbury (South Island).  Merry Christmas to all my fellow Feverites.

Surely end of the road for Burns

Really complete performance yesterday. I thought the first half was as dominating as we have every been, without threatening. While in the second we just steamrolled them. 

One area i think we need to improve on though is our left hand side. I thought we were fairly average down that flank and were lucky that Brisbane didnt make more of it. The play between Doyle, Libby and Burnsy was much slower and easier to close down that what was happening on Fentons wing. It didnt seem like the players knew the runs that others around them would be making. Burns coming short when Doyle was looking long and vice versa. And i know there is plenty of shark to hang on burns at the moment so im sure some people will lay the blame at his feet. But when he and roy switched at the start of the second, it didnt get any better. So i think its more of them getting on the same page. It does make me worry about what Victory will do to them, unless Rudan has a plan for it (and after the last few weeks, im sure he does!)

One note on burns, much like Singh, he is most effect when running at players. for me, the few bright moments of his recent matches is when he is taking people on. I think we need to do more to setup these spaces or get him and Singh to rotate into them. Because he as a different skill set to Singh and if we can get him running at defenders, would compliment it nicely. Maybe that will happen as him and the others out that side spend more time working on it. I hope so. 

doyle defended well but his passing is limited, thus the lack of fluidity on the left IMO.

As for Burns, I thought he had the best game we have seen from him since he came back. 

3 sliding tackles by the Jets Boogaard tonight we’re significantly worse than the one that had Ryan Lowry sent off. Not a mention by the commentators or even the hint of a yellow card. There is no doubt in my mind that there is unconscious refereeing bias against the Phoenix.

It wasn't a "clear and obvious error" to overturn the decision though, so Nicky Waldron has finally figured out how to use his VAR correctly.

I don't think so, there should have been replays for the referee to view. From my angle they looked level. Who gets the advantage, defence or attack?

thoughts on the first half pen shout? Was Dane lucky to get away with it or was there nothing in it?

Am I reading this right? of 21 Roar fouls on the Nix only 2 warranted cards 12 by the Nix 4 warranted cards?