Murphy’s law, aye. It’s often seen in football. When an outfit is dwelling near the bottom of the table games, ol’ Murph just seems to hang around.

His infuriating presence is often confirmed when a team can play well for weeks on end, but just cannot bag the 3 points. Missing sitters, conceding freak goals, injuries and other rare occurrences seem to multiply until there is nothing else left. Now, clearly the Phoenix aren’t playing well, but their performances really don’t warrant what’s reflected on paper. Nine games played - five losses, four draws, no wins. It’s really bleak. And it’s become difficult to prioritise a weekly viewing over life’s other ventures, especially at this busy time of year. However, as I cruised back from Glen Murray to Grafton, I managed to tune in to the commentary Jason Pine and David Chote who on Radio Sport. These guys are bloody good, and by the final whistle of Wellingtons match against the table-topping Brisbane Roar, I was almost crying out for a group hug with those guys – as obvious Nix supporters, they mirrored my frustration for a team that just can’t cross the line.

In a nutshell, what was described was another promising attacking performance, but an absolutely toothless display when it matters most – finishing. This, sadly, has been the case all season. Jeremy Brockie, last years top scorer, has been really out of sorts. Epitomised by his ’miss of the season’ which had Mr Pine literally lost for words – a parried shot has left the keeper out of the picture and Brockie couldn’t keep the loose ball under the crossbar. But you do feel bad for the guy. In fact, you feel bad for all of them. They’re putting in the shifts week in, week out – but the teams main goal scorers just aren’t firing. Paul Ifill is getting on and can’t last the 90, and you can’t rely on a substitute to score late goals every game. Stein Huysegems is technically sound and can shoot, but he’s so freakin slow that he’s never able to get himself in the right place at the right time. All these players had decent chances against Brisbane Roar, but no goals. The one goal we DID score was from the penalty spot, which came about through a blatant dive courtesy of Kenny Cunningham. No one likes to see that shit, even if you are struggling to find the net. It shows how desperate we are for goals.

Ahhh... The glory days...

To be fair, the Nix never really scored a lot of goals under Ricki Herbert either. The problem now is that we’re leaking goals at the wrong end, which was always the strength of this squad. Brisbane managed two against the Nix, the second being an absolute beauty (which is fair enough, good on ya Ivan Franjic), but the first was the bursting of a leaky pipe. A nice free kick to the far post was scrambled in past Glen Moss, but it was a ball that a commanding defender would have dealt with. Ben Sigmund fell over like an old dead tree and allowed Matt Smith to bundle in.

The final 10 minutes saw 3 excellent chances fall to the Nix, with Ifill, Hernandez and Albert Riera all holding heads in hands. This is what I’m talking about.

I don’t like to be critical, because it’s not like these guys aren’t putting the effort in. I heard an interview with Andrew Durante last week and he sounded as though he had been dragging his wounded soldiers from the battlefield. It’s not like these guys don’t want to win, they probably just need to taste some blood. Hopefully that’ll act as a line of fresh cocaine, because these guys need some motivation and deserve a break. They play Central Coast on Thursday night, so let’s hope they can get that first win under the belt. I don’t want Merrick sacked, because no doubt the next guy would just resort to that shitty long ball style. Come on lads, get the snakes off this plane and get the ball in that fucking net!!!

Phoenix 1 (C. Hernandez 47 pen) Roar 2 (M. Smith 36, I. Franjic 73).