Match 9 vs Newcastle Jets | Sun 28th Feb | 8:10pm | SS7

Have they ever? Are we talking about the same Andy Harper? 

he has been very one.sided on many occasions but he was almost pro Phoenix on some occasions tonight. Right from the beginning he said that the Phoenix were s good side, had played some sparking football, had been unlucky in previous games and were not a bottom of the table side. What more do you want?

just been able to watch the highlights. Another Phoenix player caused contact on himself in the box? What was said about that? 

And what was the scuffle after the whistle? 

In my opinion he often does that just after he's bashed us or made some factually incorrect statement about us. For example today he said something praiseworthy just after saying the Topor-Stanley vs Ball contact in the box. Same thing when he accused Fenton of handling the ball (which was shot into his chest from two inches away). 

I've missed about 10 Nix games since we started and had to endure that man's commentary over and over again. He is morally bankrupt and very biased against the Nix and does the bare minimum to appear fair to both teams, I honestly cannot stand him

You are like a broken record mate. Just turn the sound down

and ive missed zero games since day 1 and I think he’s the best of an admittedly poor lot. 

The kid got lucky.

also anyone wana do some player ratings? 

How did Laws go on the left? Devlin injured? Suspended? 

How did Lewis go? 

So annoyed with the my football fail. 

Lewis was great on telly, but a CM is always best judged live

Devlin was sick

Laws was ponderous. Got subbed after 45 because of a dead leg

1,000,000 this.  

Painful to hear them berate the Nix for what all teams, A League or otherwise do.  

Very surprised that the push was not a second yellow but not unsurprising the Fox clowns stayed quiet when we all know that they would have been clamouring for a red had Fenton done it.

I thought the Ref called it correctly but your right, had it been the other end... 2-1.

Since you asked, Laws looked like our worst player. Mostly 5 or 6 out of ten all around for the rest, we have played better this season and lost. Sail, Lewis, Da Villa, and maybe Fenton and Rufer I would mark slightly higher. Devilin had the flu I read. 

This sums up the A League for us since someone got the mean munchies in China.  

Every game post Australasian lockdown has been an away game with the boys up against it.  Happy for them today but can only think what might have been last season and this if we were actually playing at home and did not have to give up most of our best players.

?

Mate, he's piss poor like his teammate, yes he brought up our stats at the start but by no means was he praising us, only saying what the stats back up (that until today we had the worst luck of any team in the comp). 

He didn't even say that McArthur, who had just beaten the Bling, only got a point out of us due to sharkhouse refereeing.  In saying that, he's not the worst, that award goes to Robbie Slater.

Living outside of Aus and NZ, I think both Sky's and Fox's commentators are dire, right up there with that Irish Twit Smithy from the '90s.  There are one or two exceptions from both countries but they are sadly rarely on TV.

Re Waine:

A lot of people in todays match thread have bagged him but he's played  lot of football in the space of a week, scored a disallowed goal and scored a cracker today.  I think for a young gun he's done well and taken his chances.  I wasn't his biggest fan last season, he struggled in those last few games where we gave a top two finish away but he's steadily improving and reminds me a lot of Greenie 10 years ago.

He might not go on and be a Woodsy, Smeltz, Covs or W. Rufer but I think he'll end up being one of NZs better strikers ala Killen etc.

so we have two A-league standard keepers?

And Louis Fenton is our starting right back?

Also really like Lewis in that deep playmaker role. Any chance he forces a start, without illness or injury?

Hope Waine gets one, gets a bag full. Thatll do his confidence the world of good.

This. People forget he's 19 and just played his third high intensity game in a week. That's a massive effort for a young player at this level. Plus two brilliant finishes, even if one was unfortunately offside.

It's not a stretch to say that his goal today won us that three points.

Plz, Look at look at Adelaide's 16 year old Toure he is killing it. Your comment is redundant. Besides the goal he did nothing and reminds me of Tim Brown who ghosted his way though most games only to score a goal out of nowhere.

Anyone bagging Waine should be directing that to seasoned pro Hemed. Waine has contributed more than him in 3 games, and we're not paying him half as much. Waine has done very well in my eyes, has run himself into the ground each game.

Now, Hemed, I could criticise him all day - he comes on with 30 mins to go and is already too puffed to run after 10 mins; he doesn't seem like he gives a shark, all he does is commit dumb fouls and complain to the ref. Looks like a guy who is trying to do what he used to but his body doesn't let him.

Anyway, good to finally get a win!

What? Laws shut Miller down for the half he was on. That's extremely harsh. Worst player clearly Hemed. (and Sail's distribution! - on that, I remember his distribution being pretty good, not sure what happened there)

I forgot Hemed was even on the pitch he did so little, so you are probably right. I'm also probably guilty of judging Laws too much on his play with the ball rather than his defending. 

Striebloski is in charge of the referees. Say no more, he was shark when he was one. No wonder they are as bad as the are with him leading them. That was a penalty. 3 minutes about 20 reviews and they couldn't see balls ankle was hooked from behind??

hahahahahaha

I'd be a bit more generous. I suspect we went out focused on a clean sheet to give a struggling attack a chance to win the game. And the lads all worked hard, were urgent when they needed to be and got body's on and blocks when they needed to in the box.

I missed the first 30 mins or more when I gather we were under steady attack, but during what I saw we defended well. 

Sail 9 - a great diving save, a couple of good impt punches, desparate to get into position to block a couple of shots and distributed pretty well. MOTM for me. 

McGing and Payne 7 - organised and mostly calm. A bit more physical and urgent when they needed to be. More help and protection from the mids this week. 

Rufer 7 - solid, a definate presence in front of the CBs. Distributed well and got forward and back when he needed to. Deserved yellow, but he made his presence felt defensively all game getting in front of attacks and picking off loose ball. 

Lewis 7 - played the more forward of the two DMs, linked pretty well and got back into a tight D formation well when needed. Overall we had the better of the midfield. 

Fenton 7 - carried it up the flank plenty without really beating defenders. But presence forward would have helped Davila play inside him. Not a lot of targets to cross to. Busy. And solid in that D. 

Laws 5 - defensively did well enough, but not much more. Ponderous someone said. Subbed at halftime for McGarry. 

Piscopo 7 - did the job on the left that Louis and Ullises were doing on the right. Struggling to beat players but constantly trying and his pace was needed without Sotirio on. So a good outlet, got us forward, got into and around the box but a bit worse than hit and miss making something happen from there. 

Davila 8 - class act if not the fastest nor a physical presence. But held possession and got free to get into more dangerous areas often enough. Combined well on the right with Louis to share the load further forward. Great pass assist for Ball's goal, which was a nice Lewis-Piscopo-Davilla-Ball one touch move. And plenty of work rate, including defence. Leading from the front and back. 

Ball 7 - the energiser bunny work rate, tidy and needs to be looked after by the defence. Good deflected goal getting behind off Davillas pass. Could be a lot more of a threat if Hemed can become a presence in the box and create space. Solid job linking play central. 

Waine 6 - Well taken goal when given space outside the box, but a bit anonymous otherwise. Hopefully can improve and two goals suggests there is something there. But some of the Aussie kids are coming on and being consistent threats, and we're not seeing that much from Waine yet, so work in progress. Subbed at 61' by Hemed. 

Significant subs:

McGarry 6 - thought he might make more impact getting forward with fresh legs, but maybe had been told to keep it tight. Solid plug in to a D unit that worked well. 

Hemed 6 - still doesn't like the A League refs - some fouls and frustration again. But without being a major influence did combine a bit with Ball and got a couple of shots away. Maybe just a few more signs of him finding his way, but I may be being optimistic. 

Overall we were not so fluent, we're slowish as usual, but tightened up defensively and despite Jets having a lot of the play, shots, corners and crosses I think we did a legit number on them by defending solidly and taking our chances. I suspect it is well done Uffi, to get them tightening things up, and def a good team effort to get, I think, a deserved win. They pissed off and frustrated the Jets immensely, so were doing plenty right. 

Better teams will be harder to control, but that was something to build on. If we can get Hemed working, and keep other  players fit we should start getting some more results. And we're showing some useful depth in the squad. 

Waine is doing awesome.  His disallowed goal last week was all class, and yesterday's goal was a tidy in the corner no frills banger. 

If he keeps it up and keeps improving he could be another truly special player that comes out of this club. 

Not to best game to watch, I guess sometimes you have to do things ugly to get the win.

FOX commentators are likely always the worst of any game. I really wonder if someone in all honesty thinks this is good work. I wonder if Harper is going into his next performance review and plays that 'tangled legs' section and ask for a pay raise.

Waine did ok, looks to make good runs and comes to the ball as well, so can play both roles. He is a big unit and needs to learn to use his body more, or position himself better to protect. But what he has shown is, given a chance he can find the target.

It was a win, but the first 45 was horrible... Laws almost cost us a few goals with his wayward passing, others not much better.

Not sure why McCing starts ahead of Wihongi.

On Hemed, it looks to my eye like he's suffering from a culture shock, trying to adjust to a reasonably good A-League playing level and correspondingly shocking refereeing level. I think by now he's realised he actually has to do more than just turn up to make an impact. 

Though we all want the Kiwi players to go well, TAHW has been guilty of quite a few errors going back to last season.

Was an ugly win, and someone else saying Nix have played better in other games and lost is on the money.

I think at the moment, Waine is doing all that is asked of him. Starting ahead of Muratovic a sign of that. I had been critical of the young Kiwi earlier, but good on him. Took his goal very nicely. But yes need more from Hemed, otherwise can't see Nix in the top six. Have faith that if the Israeli stays injury free, he will eventually make an impact, aka Hooper. Might need to wait until April when weather is not as hot & humid in NSW.

The conditions yesterday looked tough, and that hamstring injury would not have helped getting his fitness up. Hard to train much with a dodgy hammy. Could be a few weeks yet before he is good enough for 60 plus minutes.

TAHW was really bad when he got a chance last time out - basically directly caused 2 goals. McGing far better.

For me, it's not the end result, it's the intent. The intent is not there. He walks around like he barely gives a shark.

I also think we're really missing one thing: pace. Sotirio is frustrating, but he's the only player we have who can run in behind. We're too one paced.

My impression is that he really wants to do well but he just can't get up to speed with this league. To be fair I think he gets pinged for a lot of fouls which the likes of Matt Simon get away with week in week out. Refs seem to come down against him every time he contests a ball, so he tends to spend a lot of time complaining loudly.

On the other hand he shows very little of Hooper's vision, ability to protect the ball under pressure and make that tiny bit of space that big slow strikers need in order to be a goal threat. Defensively there were several times in the last ten minutes that we desperately needed him to show his import credentials and simply kill the ball to give us some breathing space, yet frustratingly he couldn't do it.

Did we find out what happened post game? 

Jets coach said he(Nix Staff) tried to intimidate one of there players by pushing him or something check the link its starts 4:20ish

Newcastle Jets v Wellington Phoenix - A-League Match Centre (a-league.com.au)

Ta.

Not too much more context.  I'm so fricking curious. 

Impression I got was that Gothard got involved in an altercation after the final whistle. Payne was trying to temper him and encourage him to leave the melee, but he looked pretty fired up. (speculation only).

Gothard is a nutbar... always getting into arguments. Send him to the bleachers and bring Greenie back down.

Maybe we don't have the full background but I'd hate to see the Nix associated with any Jean Paul de Marigny type nonsense. It's ok being passionate about your club but not to the point of pushing and shoving post match.

Agree. Who knows what set Gothard off. 

But it looked like a bald headed middle aged guy yelling, at a slightly scared teenage kid. Not cool.

Maybe he thought there would be no consequences for two handed shoving after watching the game?