WPM R26 vs Melbourne Victory | Fri 29th April | 9:45pm | SS7

this season? two i think?

Blind... defo arm

theprof

Ref explains decision to captains
Sail accepts and moves on, the entire Victory squad has to voice an opinion.

this is what drives me nuts.

With the exception of Fenton, only blue players seem to get in his face and get away with it.

If refs don't wanna get harassed, start yellowing that shark.

MetalLegNZ

Blind... defo arm

I Blame the beers then

3rd pen. Gave 2 in one game.

NHpeter

MetalLegNZ

Blind... defo arm

I Blame the beers then

 it's ok, you're seeing as much as the ref is.

Peak A League lmao 

nufc_nz

Peak A League lmao 

Well shoulder charge on Kossie and nut puncher… that was classic peak A league 

Oh shark, I totally thought Hoops had gone home.


Come oooon!!!!!

Hoops to the rescue!

Bananas

Oh shark, I totally thought Hoops had gone home.


Come oooon!!!!!

he's here till the end of the season, leaving with a year to run on his contract.

Come boys give it a damn go for 20 minutes! 

Oooooo
That was close. 

Well with all the added time we are due after this farce shoukd take us to 120 minutes which will be nice practice come the crunch of finals football.

FARK - nice goal though, the build up was very sweet.

Dont capitulate boys!! not again.

kwlap

I would like professional fouls like that upgraded to be a red card. 

So you would have liked to see Surman sent off for holding that guy back?

While we defended it poorly, that was still a nice goal. 
Shiit. 

Come on you Nix! 

ClubOranje

kwlap

I would like professional fouls like that upgraded to be a red card. 

So you would have liked to see Surman sent off for holding that guy back?

yeah why not? do it for a season or two and players would stop the needless fouls like that.

Ah piss.  And it has to be Rojas

ClubOranje

kwlap

I would like professional fouls like that upgraded to be a red card. 

So you would have liked to see Surman sent off for holding that guy back?

Yes. 
I wasn’t saying it as a nix only perspective. 

10 mins to score 3

That was a press, not a foul. 

Mcgarry on
Handyballs off. 
I wonder how our midfield will look now??

Old exhausted. Should talk to Ball about fitness work or energy conservation!

Sutton into the middle with the 18 yr old. Youngest CM combo in A League history surely.

Ok after the triple sub I have no idea who is going to play anywhere. But this should be interesting 

That was a frustrated drop deep from Hoops.

We look a lot better with Hoops. Drops in, gets the ball, finds space and makes a nice pass.
Simple... but good.

Bidois has looked okay in his cameos... much better than Manuel who seems to be a passenger.

Well....shark.

We didn't look bad, after that first goal I thought we were I for another thumping.

Need more wins to score that home finals game.

we put much more of a fight up than I was expecting. Not sure what the xg was, but itfelt close. Sutts good again. Waino and Reno both ran hot and cold. Good to see hooper back and no new injuries. Vuc are class up front and I think are better than WUN. 

MetalLegNZ

Bidois has looked okay in his cameos... much better than Manuel who seems to be a passenger.

 
Nice run from him there. It’s hard to tell though who looks good in broken play and who can do a job in Uffie’s system. 

Well, we miss Ball. And Sotirio. Two players who never stop running, aren’t physically intimidated and can make things happen. 

And we’ve seen some of Reno’s limitations. Can’t do it all on his own, which I suppose is fair enough. It’s a pity Sandoval has had to be drafted centrally, which has lessened his goal threat. 

We have to lift from this game to threaten and perhaps even to make the finals. 

That we’re still going is nothing short of a miracle really. 

MetalLegNZ

We look a lot better with Hoops. Drops in, gets the ball, finds space and makes a nice pass.
Simple... but good.

Can we make a team that creates enough to give him a sniff? He didn’t really have a strike in anger today right? 

Interesting to hear Mark Milligan in the post game suggesting Fenton's hand ball wasn't clearly in the box, so might not have been VAR overuled. 

Still, the best side won. 

That WSW game is going to be tasty. 

aitkenmike

Surely you can't go back that far for that.  If it was a red absolutely, but no way thats a red.

Still think VAR is a farce.

Don’t think we can blame the VAR for two referees on the same panel having such divergent views of the rules. It’s basically Beath overruling Evans. 

If we had a panel that had a similar take on what was a foul and a handball we wouldn’t see so much time wasted. 

I think Evans is usually okay, but has had a rough game and been put under a lot of pressure. As we’ve been fond of pointing out recently still better than many of the performances the players put in. 

Was at the game tonight in really miserable weather. We didn’t offer so much going forward (Sandoval is really not effective) and all our attacks are driven by Reno (who looks visibly frustrated) and Sutton. We look okay when we defend deep but in transition we get cut apart far too easily, players pushing up when they shouldn’t and not pushing up when they need, the amount of space victory players had in the second half was laughable. Really really need to invest in another centre import back to partner Worton (Surman is good but struggles against pace) because conceding 46 goals in 24 games (4 more than bottom placed Perth) will not get us very far sadly. 

CCM beating WUN wouldn't be the end of the world.

We definitely want Melb City to have ALM title locked up by beating Glory. That happens and I can 100% see City resting a heap of players for their games against Nix a few days later. They have had 4 ACL games in Thailand in 2 weeks. They will definitely rest guys if they can. So makes that game alot more winnable for Nix, if Maclaren & Co are spelled.

Given their very heavy schedule Melb City may even consider resting guys by having a top 2 spot locked up by beating Glory. Which is what will happen, as VUC won't be able to catch them, only WUN.

Final will have to be in Melbs, if City make it, so winning the league title loses some of it's importance. Winning the Grand Final is what folks remember.

WUN finish the season with 3 away games (CCM, Jets & Adelaide), over 9 days, so won't be easy to catch Melb City, even with a game in hand.

Mel City 46 pts (2 games left) - Glory (A), Nix (H)
VUC 45 pts (1 game) - Sydney FC (A)
WUN 44 pts (3 games) - CCM (A), Jets (A) & Adelaide (A)

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/128451908/wellington-phoenix-lose-31-to-melbourne-victory-in-chaotic-aleague-men-clash

But the in-form Victory eventually found a second, even if it took two tries, before Rojas added a third to extend their unbeaten run to 14 games and prevent the Phoenix from moving another step closer towards securing a top-six finish.

They remain fifth on 36 points but will drop to sixth if Central Coast Mariners beat Western United on Saturday.

mjp2

Interesting to hear Mark Milligan in the post game suggesting Fenton's hand ball wasn't clearly in the box, so might not have been VAR overuled. 

Still, the best side won. 

That WSW game is going to be tasty. 

 I did think that in the video replays but didn't see much opposition so I assumed I saw wrong haha