The fans deserve better than this...

[QUOTE=avid [/QUOTE]

Avid i hear ya mate.  You just gotta realize a few of the boys on here dont like to hear anything  'bad'  about their team  even if it is the truth.   I thought the boys were pretty woeful today.  And Ricki didnt make changes when he needed to.  The boys were panicking like f**k at the back, it didnt surprise me when they scored the winner.

woeful in patches , but not the whole game, there were some very good passages of play

if they were as woeful as you say why did they just lose in the 91st minute

Get some perspective...it is a hard road getting toigether a competitive club and side. The owners, management and players deserve immense credit for the jobs they have done and continue to do. The game against the table topping Mariners shows we are competitive. We lost because two players made a silly mistake - get over it.

I thought the team played well but just lacked the final sharp edge needed. Daniel and Shane were both just off top form and at this level that is enough. Look at other sides - games have also been decided by errors or a marginal loss of form.

I expect us to remain competitive all season - winning some and losing some. A lost game is not a crisis.
Finally having a go at Terry is not on. He didnt have to subside our hobby and I for one am grateful he did.

ive been watching the phoenix like you guys from day 1 and yesterday was the 1st time i managed to go to a match, and to be honest it was awesome, the yellow fever zone rocks!!

Well said Orpewise,i think just maybe due to some unexpected good results early all of our expectations have been raised a little and because the team hasnt been able to live up to these  they are getting a blast. Unfortunately some dont seem to appreciate the work required in bringing  the Phoenix to the point we are at the moment.You bet im bloody gutted by yesterdays  performance but as we still have a number of games left im not about to call for mass changes or bringing in any other players as what we have now is it for the season.

I think the positives about our team still far out number the negatives,at  the end of the day they are a work in progress which has only just got under way and to expect it all to go smoothly with a group of players who havnt been together for very long is a little naive on all our parts.
 

While a couple of disasterous blunders cost Phoenix the game, it was still encouraging to see how well they played against one of the best teams in the league. We dominated for reasonable periods. I've seen Central Coast a couple of times really wipe teams off the pitch, but we showed we have the quality players.

Even after "That" goal, our players didn't drop their heads - except maybe plodder, I think he's still probably feeling sick about it. Anyway, that is one aspect Ricki has instilled into this team, no matter when they go behind, they don't give up the ghost like previous sides have done. They keep on going for it and that is something they should be proud of.

Why do you need to blame anyone? It's football. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes you draw - with how well you've played sometimes having very little to do with the outcome of the game. So you just get over it, wait for the next game and enjoy life in the meantime.

Absolutely el g.

The last two weeks we had every reason to chuck toys as we were second best.  We weren't second best last night.  A couple of cock-ups that on any other day wouldn't have happened did and cost us but we weren't outplayed.

You can't change it by coming on here and sl*gging the players who worked their arse off, or the fans that did all they could to stay behind them, and as for blaming the owners...  it's 9 weeks in to the clubs first season... some people really do need to get a grip.

I'm hoping everyone will wake up tomorrow and we can forget a lot of the rubbish posted on here today (I took most of the day off from here because my head hurt from reading some of the idiocy for just 60 seconds this morning) and go back to enjoying our club. 

10,500, long weekend, Napier on, a cracking game of football that we could easily have won.

f**king magic.

The nix can make it to the top 4 BUT they need to sort it out in the back! half the passes from the defense go to the opposition and they dont clear the ball with conviction. No.1 rule when defending: Play it safe! if that means booting the ball out then so be it. better than conceding a goal. NP_phoenixfan2007-10-22 19:47:29

Just thinking about the 'title' of this topic

All I 'deserve' from the players of the team i support is effort and desire and i got that yesterday.

Perhaps Avid, you feel feel like you 'deserve' an error-free performance, perhaps you should re-evaluate this expectation. Or  just buy highlights dvds.

Perhaps Avid, you feel you deserve to see only wins. if so, maybe you confuse being a fan with being a 'consumer'. So you spent some money, but sport doesn't come with a performance guarantee.

The more I think about it, the more concerned i get about the attitudes that appear to underlie your view of what fans can legitimately expect from players.

f**king spot on HN lets get over it and think of the next game! There should be no sl*gging off what so ever, everyone  makes mistakes

As a lifelong Partick Thistle supporter, having suffered over 30 years of piss poor performances and disappointments, I'm reading thru' this thread with the faintest of smiles on my grizzled old face!

I don't think there's anything wrong wth a bit of constructive criticism and I also feel that it's natural that, when things go wrong, people like to let off a bit of steam. I'm not sure about the comment that we are subsidising Terry S's 'hobby'. I think the very nature of football means that he is very, very unlikely to be seeing any sort of return on the money he pumped into the club and I think any NZ football fan owes him a huge thank-you.
The major problem with the 'Nix is that we are already a victim of our own success, which means that some people are already having unrealistic expectations about what we should expect this season. What the 'Nix have already achieved, in terms of publicity, crowd numbers, on-field performances and restoring some credibility to NZ's ability to compete in the A- League, pisses all over what previous NZ A-league sides have done so it's easy to forget just how short a period of time that this organisation has actually been in existence.
It's our first season, there will be ups and downs, I'm not knocking anybody who chooses to criticise. That's their prerogative. Personally, although I thought that yesterday's performance was disappointing, it came down to a schoolboy defensive error costing us 2 points against the league leaders. I also question Ricki's attitude towards using his bench, I thought Lia ran himself into the ground yesterday and Johnson should have replaced him to get some fresh legs into midfield. However, at the end of the day, Ricki Herbert is a far more qualified coach than I am so, while I didn't agree, I concede that he's the one making the calls. There were positives about yesterday, for example I can't wait to see Elrich, Daniel and Felipe on the park together.

It's football guys, that's the nature of the beast - from the Penthouse one week to the S**thouse the week after. Some people have waited a long time to see a viable, competitive team from NZ in the A-League, and that's what we've now got. Let's at least give them some time to sort out what problems we've got before we get the lynching party organised.

avid2007-10-22 20:45:46

So that's alright then.  Thanks Hard News for putting me right.  For a minute I thought I had spent good money watching a professional team throw a game away with inept defending just as they had in previous weeks and, with three hard away games to come, I could see them being bottom of the league within two weeks.  Silly me, everythings fine and dandy and I can just shut up and forget about it because 10,500 people turned up and the sun was shining and tomorrow is another day. 

Pretty much.

Glad I could help.

I understand the disappointment some fans feel about the result - especially with ace-cock Sasho Petrovski scoring the winner (anyone else but him).  But I don't feel the need to do the stereotypical knee-jerk New Zealand bitch about the players, coach, and owner.  Yes, the defending was poor in the game.  A couple of players will be awaiting the team sheet for the next game with some nervous anticipation.  But let's not do an All Blacks supporters routine and lose it.  I watched the replay of the game and offensively we were very good (including Christie).  Typically A-league in that the final ball and shots on goal were not great (all the teams are the same).  Playing such attacking football does leave space at the back - so we have to accept the risk of conceding goals.  Notwithstanding that the defensive blunders were unacceptable.  But why do we have to attack the coach and owner?  Or indeed anyone?  I bet Christie is aware he botched the last goal, Moss will know he could have done better in goal, O'Dor will have a few nightmares.  Get off their backs!

Keep turning up, making some noise, and hope things all fall into place for a bunch of guys who give it their all.  (As my brother said, Elrich's goal was worth turning up for by itself - and what a great first touch he has.)  In any case, what a joy to have a decent level of football in Wellington with decent crowds.  First year, we need to be understanding and patient - next year will be a better test for the team.

Cantona forever2007-10-23 08:36:18

For Fark Sake people.

Maybe arrange one night this week when everyone gets down to the Fever Lounge and send an invite to the players. Let them know were still fully behind them?

Thats rubbish there were a number of times in the first half that BOTH christie and elrich were standing wide waiting for the ball which never came.To blame this on christie is just laughable.Makes me laugh how many sl*g certain players then when they provide an option to replace that person they really are shooting in the dark.

I thought Christie worked well with Elrich at times but the communication obviously wasn't top notch yet.