R8 vs Central Coast Mariners | Sat Nov 25 | 7:35pm | RoF

This will be a cracker.Huge 3 points needed for a table boost & general pick me up.

COYN

Big game, back to back wins are important for a push in the top 6. Hopefully the break has given our defensive injuries enough time to come right. Shouldn't be losing our AW's for the rest of the season, only up from here! 

I hope the pitch is playable...............after the flood of tears on Saturday nite.

Should be in perfect shape, from what I could see there were only 13 people on the pitch on Saturday night.

Eight goals scored in the last two home games...

#shotsfired

And leaked 5 goals.............

This in theory, should be as close as we have come to fielding our strongest team.

So which two out of Ridenton, McGlinchey or Finkler will start and who is the unlucky one. For me, it has to be Finkler, Ridento seems to add balance to our midfield and McG can provide the attacking influence Finkler does, but with a bigger engine.

Also, assuming Galloway is fit, who starts as our CB pairing, Mullen, Durante and Rossi who gets dropped?

Interesting questions.

Against Sydney it was Abbas dropped when all the defenders were available but DK said that was down to wanting Galloway to defend  Mierzejewski. Not sure if CCM has anyone he would do a tactical move like that for.

Id start with ridenton & Mcglinchey. Bring Finkler on later in the second half

Have Mullen & Rossi as CB pairing.

Appoint Krishna Captain whilst Durante on the Bench. 

If you consider Mullen had a fortnight's break, while Durante played a serious game in Lima and flew backwards and forwards, I say this game would be the right one for Dura to be on the bench Besides, the game that CCM plays probably suits Mullen more (a bit like with Perf Glory).

Id hope to see
Smith
Galloway rossi mullen doyle
Ridenton parascki
Krishna vidosich weemac
Ak.

Bench
Finkler
Abbas
Durante
Parkhouse
Italiano
(Sorry spelling terrible)

We want 7

Rossi and Finkler start

It's a simple tactic, play your best men. 

                   Smith

Galloway-Mullen-Rossi-Abbas

          Ridenton-Paracki

      Krishna-Finkler-Vidosic

                     AK

Strongest team for me. Tough on Weemac, Dura and Doyle but that would be my 11. 

I hope we play!

Agreed, but question Finklers effectiveness compared to McGlinchey or Vidisich in his role.

Mcglinchey has been at the heart of everything when he's played in front of paracki and ridenton. Would be madness not to play him.

I hope we win. 

He's been great, no doubt, but I thought Finkler was better in that role last week, and is a better creative player overall. Weemac has the better engine but that's not really the requirement for that role in my opinion. 

Having said that, it's a pretty good problem to have, a very tight call, and I won't be unhappy one single bit if Finkler doesn't start. 

I agree but with a caveat. I think Finkler shone in our last game chiefly because the two CBs for Perf honked like a flock of geese and he could strut his stuff unpunished.  Melbourne Victory could not win a game for any money so far this season and yet they've just beaten Perth with much the same team, hence my caution about misreading our result against Perth as being just due to our performance alone.

CCM is traditionally our Achilles heel with their uncompromising, direct and physical game. Happy for Finkler to play part of the game against CCM to give us some depth and to be a fallback option, depending on how McGlinchey feels after the long haul travel. Finkler may well be the right choice for the CCM game after scoring in the game against Glory and feeling happy with his performance, a key morale factor.

A very nice interview with Dario on radio sport this arvo. Sounds like he has appreciated the extra time to revover and to train with game called off. Promising his combination with AK  and Roy will continue to develop.

What time was it for the week on demand?

4:45

I see the club have announced that you can wear your "other team's colours" for the game to make it a bit more colourful. Still will have my Nix shirt with me though.

Is this a score prediction?

I answered my own question. That was the time that the interview was on.

No part of me supports or endorses this.

Just come with our shirts off to start with

In regards to the lineup, I'd hope to see Durante start. It may be more sentimental than sensible, but he's roughly 10 games away from the all-time A-League record for appearances. If he could get that, I think he'd retire a happy man (especially since we'll win the GF as well!)

Agree that Darije has some key decisions to make at CB and AM.

Central Coast have their own issues as well and I just hope Powell doesn't return to form against us.

Storm Roux still in doubt

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/nz-teams/99129085/injury-cloud-still-hangs-over-all-whites-defender-storm-roux

Powell played pretty much his first game of the season in the NYL last weekend, I doubt we will see him travel.

Hopefully not but I think he played a full 90 and nabbed a goal so...

Someone please explain what the hell this is all about , and why

Essentially it’s about getting more bums on seats by targeting people who haven’t been/or regularly go to Nix games. As Supporters Clubs we’re trying to break down the euro snob mentality some have, but also show people that a lot of us are Nix fans too (season ticket holders etc)

He'll probably get those 10 appearances before the end of the season anyway. In the meantime we need to reward our two centre-backs who've been playing and been fantastic as we desperately need to get a win and get some into good form.

Do you seriously think even one person extra will come to the game because of that? How about we say the Phoenix play in yellow and black stripes, we all wear that in support, and our team doesn't wear stupid white strips for home games?????????

SOme Poms wont come to our games because it is not EPL standards. It only took over 100 years for them to get it right in England and we are meant to achieve that in ten years.