WPM R12 vs Melbourne Victory | Wed 9th February | 9:05pm | SS7

Clean Sheet! 
Front to back, impressive performance. Heads high for Adelaide at the weekend.

You can hear every hand clap between the players out there - very intimate setting - and we can even hear Ollie Sail talking!

League Table!!??

Ya dancer!

Mainland FC

IWe should be thankful D'Agostino left his shooting boots at home tonight.

 
Got defended today!

We were spooners a week ago and now we are in the cusp of the 6.

This shark is stressful.

Wooten got 90 under the belt. Suspect that wasn't intended, but he was solid and didn't have too hard a night. 

Game of the season so far surely? Every one of the boys in yellow upped their game and nobody set a foot wrong. Really enjoyed the quality and large percentage of possession we had. We are now well into our mid-season surge, as is tradition. Time to start eating away at that nasty negative Goal Difference on the ladder now! 

Feverbot! Feverbot! Feverbot!
Bloody happy with that.

Great day of football for me!

Wootten was missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle at the back. Seems to be a great leader, vocal, strong and composed. I'm here for it. 

Hopefully Hooper can be ready for the weekend.

mjp2

Bananas

Rojas being a centurion for Victory feels wrong in my soul

Him loosing it vs Nix. Feels right. Hard luck lad. Well done on the hundy. 

Loved watching him and Payne hanging out together on the pitch afterwards. Payno is probably teasing him for not scoring against us in his 100th game for Melbourne.

Yep just as i predicted. We missed out on the FFA Cup but I can smell silverware if we keep playing like this.

When uffie gets us on a roll we start playing so much better tactically. Hopefully, we can keep this up against Adelaide who is arguably the worse team out of the last 3 opponents. 

Great win. Still a long long way to go, but credit to Talay and the team, I really thought this season would be a struggle with so many obstacles to overcome.

He may just have got the recruiting right yet again with Wootton & Sandoval.

Not sure if the match scheduling in correct in Soccerway, but appears that Nix don't travel interstate again until March 12th (Brisbane)??? If correct that's a real bonus with 5 games in NSW before then.
https://us.soccerway.com/matches/2022/02/12/australia/a-league/wellington-phoenix/adelaide-united/3693078/

The tough stretch will likely be mid March-early April. With Payne, Sail & maybe Lewis, plus Sutton away with the AWs. Sotiro possibly with New Caledonia.

Talay really is bloody good coach. Again lets hope season 2022/23 is a level playing field, so he can have a fair crack at the title.

Absolute team performance from start to finish that. They really deserved a crowd for it.  I missed the goal as I had to hit the hay but great interception by Ball and typically unselfishly lays it off for Reno to slot it home. Piscopo still had lots to do but kept his head. Are there any better highlights than the maccas ones? Pretty much finish at the goal.

this is not something I expected for this season - firstly Snakes FC at the top with a game in hand, then us sitting 1 point off the 6 with a game to play. Win that we catch Sydney in 3rd and pass Adelaide in 5th. Finals footy is definitely a strong possibility this season. 

Very assured performance. Oustanding across the park. Rufer starting to gain more confidence and capability.

coochiee

Great win. Still a long long way to go, but credit to Talay and the team, I really thought this season would be a struggle with so many obstacles to overcome.

He may just have got the recruiting right yet again with Wootton & Sandoval.

Not sure if the match scheduling in correct in Soccerway, but appears that Nix don't travel interstate again until March 12th (Brisbane)??? If correct that's a real bonus with 5 games in NSW before then.
https://us.soccerway.com/matches/2022/02/12/australia/a-league/wellington-phoenix/adelaide-united/3693078/

The tough stretch will likely be mid March-early April. With Payne, Sail & maybe Lewis, plus Sutton away with the AWs. Sotiro possibly with New Caledonia.

Talay really is bloody good coach. Again lets hope season 2022/23 is a level playing field, so he can have a fair crack at the title.

The best thing about Talay is not just his recruitment it is his willingness to give the young guys a go. I'd guess our wage bill is a lot lower than many teams yet we can compete due to the academy and Talay knowing how to integrate them with the team.

Typhoon

Very assured performance. Oustanding across the park. Rufer starting to gain more confidence and capability.

I've been a huge Rufer critic recently, but I absolutely loved how willing he has been to get on the ball in recent games. Last night he was dropping into the back line, picking up the ball and distributing in a manner similar to Devlin. Also running into small tight pockets of space and demanding the ball be played to him. Previously he never looked confident enough to demand the ball in tight areas but now he's really stepped up.

Great game yesterday. I feel like we were so attacking minded and often pushed 4 or 5 players up as soon they kicked a goal kick. This allowed us to box them in and really boss them. A couple of defensive slips could have ruined the game, something to be mindful of.. 
I thought Ball was outstanding. Not just his magnificent assist, but the work rare and his ability to pop up in unexpected places too. Sutton seems to be going back to his old self when he first burst on the scene. His attacking prowess is very Cacace-esque. No wonder McGarry can't get a look in at the moment. 
Was very happy with Sotirio too. It was his pressing that contributed to Davidson making that mistake last night. Reno was very classy as usual though I felt he and Gael often trampled on each other's toes. I like how the Mexican comes central at times but I think Uffie need to tidy up that move a bit so he's not too predictable and doesn't get in the way of other AMFs. 
Laws really looked like he belonged in the league yesterday. If he hadn't lost sight of Rojas who almost scored, he would have had almost a perfect game. 
Yes to Payne to RB please. More of that. Ollie Sail take another bow son. I know we have Paulsen in the wings who showed much promise but I'd be hugely surprised if we didn't capitalise on Sail at the end of the season especially given the financial situation of the club. To me he's the #1 candidate for a transfer in that he'll attract plenty of interest from overseas. Hope to be proven wrong. 
Finally, Wooton did us job very well. Composed, vocal, alert.. He certainly looks the goods. 
Now we need some consistency.
If we have a good stretch of games like yesterday, there's no reason why we can't make the play offs. 

Agree think Sail is the next player Nix will look to sell, and at his age (26), he'll be keen to test himself overseas at the right club where he has chance to be a starter. There will be scouts watching that OFC tourney.

And if he does leave, Talay & Co can somewhat rest easy, knowing Paulsen is certainly a talent. Plus having a 5M popn to themselves virtually, there will be a continous crop of young Kiwi keepers to source backups from.

And who knows if Rufer continues to shine, he might garner some interest in Europe. Presume he has a EU passport (born in Swizterland).

A couple of weeks ago the thought of Sotirio starting would make me feel ill.
He's still incredibly frustrating at times but particularly in games like last night, the work he gets through and the pressure he puts on defenders can make so much difference to the way we are able to press as a team and win balls high up the pitch or cause a hurried pass out that we can win in midfield.

Rock Hopper

Game of the season so far surely? Every one of the boys in yellow upped their game and nobody set a foot wrong. Really enjoyed the quality and large percentage of possession we had. We are now well into our mid-season surge, as is tradition. Time to start eating away at that nasty negative Goal Difference on the ladder now! 

Definitely our best performance for me. Tactics spot on, controlled the game for long periods, patient and accurate passing, total commitment from everyone. 

I thought Piscopo was outstanding, like Davila levels of influence on the game. Best game of the season from Ball. The Rufer/Lewis combo suddenly clicking in a way I had given up on ever seeing. Wootton looks to be a solid, no frills defender of the type we really need. Not a flash bench compared to other clubs but some good young talent there to take the pressure off the old hands.

A richly deserved three points.

Sotirio is a great impact player to bring on in the final 15-20, running at tired legs. He's good enough to warrant a wider squad role, but not as a starter. Then again, every time I seem to bag him, he pops up with one or two! Hooper hopefully starts at the weekend!

To me it looks like Jaushy has worked quite a bit on his hold up and link play which is really good to see - especially if he wants to be commanding more minutes up front. 

Still frustrating sometimes but the amount of times he stretched the Victory defense out wide, held it up and brought others into play I think was def missing from him last season!

Great team win, good across the park, Ball went up another notch on his usual high workrate, adding some super skillful work to the mix, Man of the Match for me.

If we had hooper as a threat in the box last night we would have hammered victory. We didn't really have a pay off for a lot of our work. But there are games where sotirio is bigger threat (macarthur). That's where the manager and tactics come into play. 

Has there been any actual updates on Hoppers injury?
Originally reported as a hamstring injury, which you would think would mean 3 weeks out. But pre match for this game he was listed as only 'doubtful'
What does that mean.

Interesting to see what the squad looks like this weekend, a few players have played 180 minutes in just a few days. You'd expect quite a bit of rotation.

Ryan

Interesting to see what the squad looks like this weekend, a few players have played 180 minutes in just a few days. You'd expect quite a bit of rotation.

 Given they have won three on the trot I would think they'd be buzzing, with a can't wait to get back out there attitude.

harrymc55

Ryan

Interesting to see what the squad looks like this weekend, a few players have played 180 minutes in just a few days. You'd expect quite a bit of rotation.

 Given they have won three on the trot I would think they'd be buzzing, with a can't wait to get back out there attitude.

Also they have been reasonably lucky with coolish weather, considering Feb can very hot & sticky in NSW. Even had a bit of Welly rain.

I imagine Uffie will try and play his first choice 11-13 as long as he can, through this spell of games. Sub off Payne earlier (Louie's a pretty good replacement). Same Pennington for either Lewis/Rufer. Hooper hopefully starts for Sotiro. 

Otherwise I don't see him making changes, unless there is any real fatigue. Unfortunately most of the young bench players, are not yet of the consistent quality of the first choice 11-13. But they will for sure be getting mins in the next few weeks. More during March's OFC Tourney.

valeo

kwlap

man, Uffie subs, I never get used to them ay. 

They always make no sense, his only flaw

Straight out of the Arnie coaching manual 

He's got great progression from three players in particular in the few games - Sutton, Pisc, and Rufer.  Especially pisc.  Also, our big boy game management/ decision making across the park is much improved.  Lets lock this in please....