Shots of a packed stadium, apparently 18,000 came to watch it - shame that we have scored no goals for them to remember. Dave Ball is off and Ben Old is on.
These sort of results all can come down to poor recruitment start of season. Too many academy youngsters being relied on. An academy team that has come bottom in the nz national league. No depth in the squad. Especially in defence and Especially when your main right backs are Elliot and Felton. Sign bozinovski on loan. Might as well have gone a player short he's barely played any minutes. Disappointing
Really need to work at that. Because it looks like a mentality issue. Don't mind losing, but when you've been whacked 27-0 across 6 games that have finished 4-0 or greater, it shows that a) heads drop; & b) our mental fortitude to tough it out just isn't there.
Result aside, massive thanks to the 18k turnout. Always hard to get attendance up on those long holiday weekends, even if we've been offshore for an eternity. Hopefully we get a good number in Auckland next week, for what will be a crucial game.
Pennington played well. At least 10 corners and it was the same thing over and over again. No variation whatsoever. The attack, except for Ball, need to press much more. The opposition have a free ride in their half.
They finally get a week without a midweek game. A chance to rest up and repair some fatigued bodies. Have some proper training sessions even
WSW not the toughest opponent. Maybe get Laws back. Huge motivation that playoffs are still there for the taking. They have bounced from a few heavy losses already this season
I expect them to beat the Wanderers. Hopefully weather is fine and they get a good turnout. 18k great result. Well done Welly & surrounds
At the moment I decided not to make predictions. While getting smashed twice by CCM and Victory hurts, I am far more worried about what it means that we won against similarly decimated Perth, twice, only by a single goal difference. Do I want us to play in the finals? Sure thing, but on our present form we do not belong there. Our current table position shows we are still up there, but that reflects our squad strength from several weeks ago before Lewis and Rufer got injured, Payne & Co went off with the AWs, while Hooper, Piscopo and Sotirio got injured as well. This was spread over several games, making it harder.
CCM were real good - played like a top 2 side. We had to score in that opening burst and didn't. Classic game plan by them. Nothing to be ashamed of. We've been to hell and back in Oz. Struggling to get a bench together. Crowd were great again. Nix footy community in great shape. Well done Nix owners to bring them back. Don't think any-one will want to play CCM in the finals.
Thanks to everyone for showing up on Easter Sunday to support the boys. The Yellow Fever put in a massive shift. Well done lads. The cheering and the drumming was first class.
Looking forward to seeing the lads turning it around against WSW in Auckland.
The critics - in their infinite unparalleled wisdom - are entitled to stick the boot in. There was however a degree of freakishness in this result. Nothing went the way of the Phoenix and the Mariners - a good side - made the most of their chances. The roll of the dice could easily have sent the result in the other direction.
And yes I was at the game and have watched the replay.
If Ball scores, no counter attack, different game. But to be fair they played with much more fluidity and converted the chances. To bad we did not scored on to get a bit of party going for the fans.
Bollocks. That goes in and it’s a different game, it didn’t, I was already five beers in but we lost all confidence. Was weird, but it was like all the wind went out of our sail. Fudge. Deserved more than that, that was bollocks. But we move on.
well, it was great being part of a decent crowd again, and we did our best to lift the team and influence the game. CCM in the end were good for their win, but it is a game of small margins. We went close to scoring several times but they shot down the other end and put it away. I know the team will feel they have let the fans down after all that expectation. I can only hope the week off gets them primed for a better result in Auckland, it should do. I thought Pennington had a good game. Waineo made a difference when he came on too.
The team is mentally fragile. I bet they were thinking about the last thumping at the back of their minds and lost their composure. On top of that there was probably a bit of distraction and pressure of coming home and to a huge crowd. All a recipe for a disjointed performance.
The feeling that I had before they conceded the first goal was that if they keep playing like this they will make the playoffs. Then of course it fell apart. What kills me is the set pieces, mostly the corners. We didn't really create chances to score from them (maybe except for one). We need to be much more clinical. We can't just rely on Sotirio having a good day.
That whole performance was exceptionally disappointing but overall not that suprising. It's It's shame though because it's sure to put off some of the casual fans that were thinking of showing up to Auckland.
Honestly I can see us getting at least one more thrashing before the seasons over. We're fragile as fudge.