vs West Sydney, Christchurch 23rd September 2:30pm

I thought dura, siggy and brockie were decent but we were defiantly rusty. 

Positive note they had AW tickets sales after the game. 5 dollars off and got the undefeated DVD. Long line. Pax was about 4000 when I asked a guy who got his tickets 

definitely Rusty, they have played the jets, had a 5 game tour of India and had some games against wellington selections preseason so they should be better than they were today, 2nd half looked more promising. Did you get the dvd for free when you bought AW tickets today? Dont trust pax - I bought my tickets for todays game yesterday and it had 6800 odd, but attendance today was 7000 apparently. I thought the North stand looked chocka so thought that 10000 at least were there?

and the team doctor/physio needs to get fitter, he took forever to get to the other side of the field when Tatoori had his head injury

My sister did when she bought her tickets but I didnt already have the DVD. And yeah i thought the attendance was over 7000 too, looked pretty packed 

Also if they have those blow up sticks at the AW game I'm gonna be so mad. They make such an annoying noise and whenever someone starts a chant people just start banging them and it drowns out the chant 

Isn't that where Luke Skywalker comes from?

well we'll just call him Ben, no idea how to spell his name.

Coverage on tv3 sports news of todays game in a minute

Obi Won "BEN" Kenobi too.  Maybe we have found his nickname!!!

No that's Tatooine - close though.

Riccardo Clarke - Panamaniac - Flashdance song adaption maybe if he's worth of a song.

There's a Panamaniac, panamaniac and he's gonna score .... or something like that.

Little bit worried about this season but just keep thinking that if Ricki did what he did last year with that squad then he can do it again. I think it'll take us a while to get back up to speed - hopefully our defence is still solid.

Midfield sounds shakey but it has been since our inception so nothing new there.

The highlight for me undoubtedly was Ricki going to punt a signed ball in to the crowd after the game and shanking it so it never even got to the first row.

 Awesome game, voice totally gone...

Notes:

1) Alex Smith looked good in the middle, worked his ass off and actually struck a decent set piece occasionally.

2)Thunder sticks are beyond a f*cking joke. get rid of them!

3) Beach ball in the crowd was a great idea at the end of the first half - good call by my mate (it stopped issue #2 around us for a while)

4) Totori looked to be pinned back a bit due to formation/tactics and that probably hindered him a bit.

5) Can see Manny breaking Mooy's leg this season - little prick is gunna get chopped quite a bit if he tries to pick on someone like Manny again.

6) one of the best CB pairings in the league! Bertos at right back scares me a tad - he's like Lochead...offers more going forward than on D

7) crowd of 7k? really?! seemed like more!

8) Watching Stein sprint is hilarious...like a slightly special gazelle. Gunna be quality for us though!!!

Side note: Big ups to Ian and the troops for taking us under your wing for the arvo. We'll see you next time!

Also...stadium security = muppets. Fever zone is not for sitting in! little north stand = much better option for 2nd half

We gave them to much space in the centre of the park. To tori  like most from his island, take to many touches, needs to release ball earlier. Ref was to soft on some bed tackles early on, could very easily have lost control.

Just got back to Timaru. I really hope the white noise zone is done alot better than the fever zone today. Those of wanting to stand were given some abuse so we had to trek halfway across the ground to the "West" stand. Saying that it was quite good once we were in the West stand. Also video here http://www.3news.co.nz/Phoenix-draw-at-AMI-Stadium/tabid/317/articleID/270289/Default.aspx

 White noise zone is more in the corner.  Where in the stadium was the fever zone

Im still unconvinced about Totori starting. And it now sounds like this Clarke chap is gonna offer some pace off the bench or even push for a start. 

Interesting that it sounds like Stein hasnt been seeing enough ball, yet Brockie is constantly a threat? Not sure if Stein is just not gelling with his teammates yet and running unfamiliar lines, but that sticks out for me?

I, too, was disappointed with the fever zone thing.  We had purchased fever zone tickets expecting to be standing amoungst rowdy hooligans chanting, waving flags and making slightly insulting yet witty comments directed at the WSW, but instead found ourselves surrounded by primary school aged kids and some old scottish chaps.  It was like the fever zone was just another section in the crowd. Good on those who used their initiative and went to the end stand.  Dunedin seemed to work better last year, not sure what the difference was though.  

Quite impressed by the Fenton lad, seems to have a good head on his shoulders.  Totori didn't really stand out for me, is left midfield his preferred position?  Hope not.

 Fever zone was a nightmare, was heaps better when we moved down the end. Crowd looked bigger than 7000. Hopefully this boosts the All Whites ticket sales.

Fenton and Brockie are definitely the stand out players I saw. I don't think Totori should be a starter, I don't think he is quite up to par yet. Clarke looked good with the ball and came close to scoring a couple of times. Huysegems not really up to much yet. I think we struggled to hold possession at times, especially when trying to go up the middle of the park. Did a lot better when we went up the wings.

Which one is that? There are more than 1000 in the Solomons.

 thundersticks are not good.

neither was the first half, I'm surprised anyone can give an opinion on our mid-field as the seemed to watch the ball be bashed over them 15-20 times in the half. Topor-Stanley had it easy.

Totori broke up a very dangerous situation with a great 45m recovery run, then I listened to the experts behind me say how lazy he was.

Smith and Manny look solid yet what limited ball they had didn't seem particularly creative. 

Siggy was awesome , 100mph and massive work rate.

I'd like us to be able to pass the ball. Quickly and accurately. 3 young guys played none of whom I remember seeing before. They all did some OK stuff, and look like technical skills training  is part of their daily routine.

all in all nice day for football , good sized crowd but standard of play was pretty low.

 I went to the game and some random thoughts...

1) Midfield: Central midfield looked bereft of ideas, both Smith (in particular) and Manny ran hard but didnt have any cutting edge. In contrast to a few on here I thought Totori played reasonably well, regularly beat his man and made a few good crosses. While Fenton did all he did well (ie short sharp passes), he didnt really stand out, but looked promising for a young kid. But having Totori and Fenton on the park would be a slight worry, although i suppose Ifill knock one of them out of place when he comes in.

2) Stein H looked well off the pace, and rarely touched the ball. And was yelling at his team-mates in frustration on occasion.

3) Paston looked like the usual Paston, reasonably commanding of his area, but slightly fumbled a number of shots hit straight to him

4) Brockie played well in the 2nd half, he looked to be playing alongside Stein rather than in behind him

5) We played a lot of longball in the first half (and Topor-Stanley was immense and won everything in the air), but in the 2nd half we passed a lot better along the ground.

6) Leo was ok at RB, and is obviously still learning the position, and I'm not sure whether RH sees him playing the season there once Lia (and maybe Downey) are fit again. He lost his man a couple of times, but didnt cost us.

7) Dura and Siggy played well, the usual solid performance.

8) For a team that has played a number of games together, in the first half in particular we still looked very rusty

9) For all the derision thrown the way of Brown and Lia, no doubt centre midfield would be my biggest worry going into the season. Muscat was solid and looked grumpy/angry, my money is on him to be the first Nix played to 5 'Yellows'. He did one major 'Hollywood' where he was clattered in a tackle, and lay prone on the ground not moving an inch, so much so the ref stopped play, and after about 10 secs of not moving got straight up and yelled at the ref.

10) The new boy Clarke didn't really impress, but he had limited time, and apparantly arrived in NZ on Saturday, so he can only get better one would hope. Did have one good run where he beat 2 or 3 players in close proximity and then seemed to fall over the ball.

11) Those f**kin thunder sticks did my head. I took my two boys (one either side of me) and after a while I tolld them the next one to bang them wouldn't get any chips/sprite at the half. So that shut them up until after half time, when of course they'd had their chips etc. Poor poor option to allow those. Avoid them at the 'Ring of Fire' at all costs.

Reading all that sounds quite negative, but I didn't really feel like that watching the game. No doubt WSW were the best team in the 1st half, we were the better team in the 2nd, so 1-1 was probably a fair result. My concerns would be the lack of chance we created.

 Topor Stanley was immense, gotta give him some credit. If he gets broken or suspended I feel sorry for WSW as he looks like he'll save them a lot of drama

I was at the game and had a great time. 

My thoughts on the game seem to be similar to everyone else's thoughts (those thundersticks need to get bansticked! They're so stupid!).

We did miss a bit of creativity in the central midfield so it will be good when we get Sanchez and Ifill back. 

Ricki Herbert was saying (can't remember where) that there was going to be a change in playing style this season so I was a little bit disappointed that we played same old same old. I was expecting more passing, but still, it's early days yet!

The fever zone was never going to work yesterday in a pre-season game, needs some more yf'ers to show people how it is done, i was in the fever zone for the game here in chch V adelaide when Siggy scored the last minute winner - the yf zone was brilliant that day and mainly due to the travelling yf'ers - without them there would not have been any chants or songs.

Problem for yesterdays game was that we struggled to get the ball to our forwards via the mid-field so opted instead to hoof it upfield missing our midfielders, but we couldnt get the ball past Topor-Stanley. Played better ball to feet in the 2nd half and created more chances. 

The YF zone was massive and in the middle of the stadium. So that wasnt the best idea. White noise is by the corner for the next chch game but still the same size