WPW R15 vs Melbourne Victory | Sat 8th Feb | 4:00pm | Porirua Park / Sky Sports 1

Two hilarious possession giveaways within the space of 5 seconds for Victory's equaliser. Both completely unforced, the second putting it on a platter for an easy finish. What a coach killer. 

What's disappointing is for all our positive play, we haven't scored since the very early minutes of the game. A pattern in many of our games - not often we score more than 1 goal, even where we are the better side

Great game. 
But too much Ferguson.  Not enough Main.
Wall, Longo, mccutchen absolute standouts. Whinham too

Ultimately, for how great we played, not enough firepower. We played the better football, some great football.  But goals count.

Still a decent result!

Disappointed we couldn't come away with the 3 points.

We looked great most of the match, just disappointing to concede so easily.

Need to find ways to score more goals really - other than that we are great to watch

Fenix

Great game. 
But too much Ferguson.  Not enough Main.
Wall, Longo, mccutchen absolute standouts. Whinham too

Ultimately, for how great we played, not enough firepower.

Wall was disappointing with so much space and only 2 effective crosses.
Poor result up against a badly out of form victory 

We drew, but we fought.

Compared to the dumpster fire that is our ALM campaign, watching the Wahinix fills my heart with joy.

Elbo

Fenix

Great game. 
But too much Ferguson.  Not enough Main.
Wall, Longo, mccutchen absolute standouts. Whinham too

Ultimately, for how great we played, not enough firepower.

Wall was disappointing with so much space and only 2 effective crosses.
Poor result up against a badly out of form victory 

 They're not badly out of form - but yes they weren't great today so it's disappointing we didn't win.

martinb

Still a decent result!

Respectfully disagree. In isolation a draw against a good 3rd placed Victory team is a decent result - but considering the contract in our home/away form and the fact that we need to start winning to catch the teams we're chasing, it's a pretty average one.

Elbo

Fenix

Great game. 
But too much Ferguson.  Not enough Main.
Wall, Longo, mccutchen absolute standouts. Whinham too

Ultimately, for how great we played, not enough firepower.

Wall was disappointing with so much space and only 2 effective crosses.
Poor result up against a badly out of form victory 

I criticized Walls crossing last week on here.  I thought she was hell of a lot better this week, and her general play was great. Bear in mind Ferguson is unlikely to get on the end of anything.

We played some great football. If only we had a goal scoring #9

Ranix

We played some great football. If only we had a goal scoring #9

Ferguson is too slow,too short, and her control isn't good enough.
We know little about her shooting ability,cos she never has the ball near the goal.

Fenix

Ranix

We played some great football. If only we had a goal scoring #9

Ferguson is too slow,too short, and her control isn't good enough.
We know little about her shooting ability,cos she never has the ball near the goal.

Perhaps Temple hoped Fergusson would be a weapon if she 'dropped down' to the A-League from the English comps, but so far she's on a par with her career average, which is 1 goal every 6-and-a-bit games.
Considering the good work being done by her teammates, it's a poor return and won't get us into the finals.

Ranix

We played some great football. If only we had a goal scoring #9

Whinham was outstanding in the first half. And with a high workrate. Should be in the national squad.

McCutcheon and Longo the standouts though.

Feel for Ferguson. Very often isolated up top.

They didnt win but this team is much better to watch than the men at the moment. Mistakes aplenty but that is the price you pay for always looking to go forward.

Paul Temple is doing a good job with what he has.

LT01

martinb

Still a decent result!

Respectfully disagree. In isolation a draw against a good 3rd placed Victory team is a decent result - but considering the contract in our home/away form and the fact that we need to start winning to catch the teams we're chasing, it's a pretty average one.

Ah. Too much watching the blokes.

Back from the game. Was such a nice day out in the sun. Absolutely gutted we gift wrapped that goal and dropped two points that we so desperately need.  Longo is amazing, god I hope she doesn't leave us.  Vilao is amazing as well. 

Didn't spot any celebrities today but I'm sure there would have been a few. 

And thank goodness the seagulls that visited were only a very small number.  Guess they had better things to do.   

U037

Fenix

Ranix

We played some great football. If only we had a goal scoring #9

Ferguson is too slow,too short, and her control isn't good enough.
We know little about her shooting ability,cos she never has the ball near the goal.

Perhaps Temple hoped Fergusson would be a weapon if she 'dropped down' to the A-League from the English comps, but so far she's on a par with her career average, which is 1 goal every 6-and-a-bit games.
Considering the good work being done by her teammates, it's a poor return and won't get us into the finals.

Pritchard was better than Ferguson is.

Fenix

U037

Fenix

Ranix

We played some great football. If only we had a goal scoring #9

Ferguson is too slow,too short, and her control isn't good enough.
We know little about her shooting ability,cos she never has the ball near the goal.

Perhaps Temple hoped Fergusson would be a weapon if she 'dropped down' to the A-League from the English comps, but so far she's on a par with her career average, which is 1 goal every 6-and-a-bit games.
Considering the good work being done by her teammates, it's a poor return and won't get us into the finals.

Pritchard was better than Ferguson is.

Can’t agree with this. Ferguson is being asked to chase everything up front on her own. She does this well. If she was pkaying as a true striker she’d be expected to do less of this and would have more support.

That aside, longer term I think Manaia Elliott could shift into a more central striker role. 

Gutted a brain explosion from Jaber gifted them the equaliser.
She’s aggressive but a liability 

Elbo

Gutted a brain explosion from Jaber gifted them the equaliser.
She’s aggressive but a liability 

 
A liability? You cannot be serious! She’s been outstanding this season.

It wasn't a brain explosion. It was a desperate clearance. Just needed " if in doubt, put it out"

When are we allowed to have a conversation about dropping Mackenzie Barry from the team? 

Porirua Fortress stands!  Teams still can't get the win here.

paige478

When are we allowed to have a conversation about dropping Mackenzie Barry from the team? 

I'm a big Barry fan, but admit she's made a few errors this year. But that wayward pass was the only thing she did wrong yesterday  I thought.  With no Lake, I don't think there is any chance of her being dropped.

Jaber has also made a couple of errors, but she's been good overall, and like Barry,has been getting better as the season goes on.

They are both shoe ins for me.

And from what I see of other Aleague women games, our defenders are much better than most!

Totally agree, Barry is not the issue, sure she makes the odd mistake, unfortunately these happen to be in dangerous spots given her position. Even Longo makes multiple errors in a game, they are just less damaging as they are higher up the park.

Only got to watch the hi lights. I like the work rate of Ferguson, her pressure helps us turn over ball and create chances. Jale probably wouldn’t be as affective at doing that, her best role is cutting in from left wing. 
Elliot’s goals this season and her heading is what we need centrally. She has been getting more accurate with her shooting getting lots more on target. We need to be getting further into the box and doing cut backs to create higher scoring chances- even if we only focus on doing it from our left side with Wall, as she has a mega engine and can go up and down the flank all day. 
Jaber I think could have gone in hard for that square ball that Barry played and made it a 50/50 but she backed off. Even if she had given away a free kick and yellow card that might have been better. 

Loving our depth and the squad we have has great quality in most positions. If we had been able to keep Speckmaier we would be in top 3. 

Expect us to lose Vilao, Barry, Jale next season. 

I reckon a striker is more important to spend big on for us instead of a keeper and give our young NZ keepers a crack. 

Kelly and McCutcheon have been excellent acquisitions. Ferguson might do better if she didn’t have to do so much chasing and pressing. More energy left then to sprint and a better first touch to set up chances. 

Has Abbot made her debut yet? If so how did she go? And Jerez got on yesterday- did she have any chances? 

Temple has a good record with younger player development- Bambi aka Rosie White was scoring goals for fun as a 13year old in his Western Springs club side  when they were dominating the Kate Sheppard cup and Auckland leagues. 

Call me old fashioned, but I judge centre forwards on what they do with the ball, in possession.

If we wanted to have someone who runs around like a headless chicken and never touches the ball, we could have had Gabi Rennie, shes very good at that.
Or we could play Olivia Ingham, whom im sure is quicker and fitter than Ferguson.

Or Ela Jerez, who I know little about, but who is a known prospect and who wont do any worse than Ferguson Im positive

Main is better than any of those mentioned, and not sure if she has injury niggles, but shes been sorely under utilised

Is Tanaka injured as well.  Haven't really seen much of her which is disappointing. 

Also I remembered seeing a few Victory fans there, wonder if they were there for Claudia? Is there even a designated away bay for them? 

The start of the season should've been when.

paige478

When are we allowed to have a conversation about dropping Mackenzie Barry from the team? 

Whinham is the most frustrating player. Obvious talent but she can't do early passes and has a foot like a feather when she shoots. If she can sort one of those two things out...

Procrastinixing

Is Tanaka injured as well.  Haven't really seen much of her which is disappointing. 

Also I remembered seeing a few Victory fans there, wonder if they were there for Claudia? Is there even a designated away bay for them? 

She was sitting up the back of the stand with the other non playing reserves. Marco Rojas was sitting with them as well.
There was a bunch of lads in front of them cheering on Claudia Bunge plus a few Victory fans a few rows in front of me.

Christo

Whinham is the most frustrating player. Obvious talent but she can't do early passes and has a foot like a feather when she shoots. If she can sort one of those two things out...

yes definitely a work on for her but the best way to change that is to encourage her to shoot and have a go in match situations. Which she has been doing. Looks like she's slowly improving in that department.

Ranix

Christo

Whinham is the most frustrating player. Obvious talent but she can't do early passes and has a foot like a feather when she shoots. If she can sort one of those two things out...

yes definitely a work on for her but the best way to change that is to encourage her to shoot and have a go in match situations. Which she has been doing. Looks like she's slowly improving in that department.

I'd also put some concrete in her shoe.

Just noticed we broke 1000 for attendance at this match (1015 to be exact), best home crowd this season. May it continue!