Ernie! One Of Those Draws
Do people still pay money to watch the Hobbit movies?
It was one of those draws, those draws where not a whole lot goes your way but you get a point. The Wellington Phoenix were, well what were they? For moments against the Central Coast Mariners they looked like the supreme attacking footy machine that Ernie Merrick would dream about. Other moments in the game saw the Nix look like the group of battlers that we have come to love ... or get extremely frustrated at.
You could draw parallels between the performance of the Phoenix and the stadium they were playing at. For me, that's the last time the Phoenix should play at Eden Park with many other options available. I'm not saying that they should strictly stick to Wellington, but why not play at a smaller ground in Auckland or play in Hamilton, Dunedin or Christchurch? The options are endless but Eden Park, bid farewell.
Frustrating performance, in front of a crowd that frustrates you, in a stadium that only really frustrates you. Ah well, we got a point!
Somehow the Mariners took the lead, thanks to a rebound from a long distance shot. Matt Simon beat the Nix defenders to the ball and slotted the go ahead goal. Not the best defending, but you could forgive Ben Sigmund and Andrew Durante for falling asleep as the Nix were firing on all cylinders. Except the goal scoring one.
Like I said, there were very good patches - holding the ball, working little passing movements with Roly Poly dancing on the ball beating defenders while Michael McGlinchey was also pretty impressive coming deep to pick up the ball. This is all fine and dandy, in fact I quite like it as the Phoenix showed that they're getting there but they just couldn't score. Once again our super-trooper defensive mid-field combination were able to snuff out any foray in to an attacking position from the Mariners.
Corners and free kicks became time to take a piss, go get a beersie from the fridge or kiss your missus (all of equal importance). The Phoenix never really looked threatening, usually corners get everyone up on their feet with anticipation but meh while free kicks went the direction of a team mate, not the goal. Obviously a plan from Merrick and McGlinchey who took most of the free kicks, but just bang one!
Roy Krishna got the goal for the Phoenix, that's a positive. This lad keeps on banging them in and the mere fact that the Nix salvaged a draw shows some ticker. The Mariners sat back, even when it was 0-0 inviting the Nix to play some footy, so it could have very easily been a much different story.
Another cheeky positive was that a few lads got some game time and Ernie flexed his depth muscles. Kenny Cunningham came on for Albert Riera, which is a great option to have when chasing the game while Alex Rufer gave McGlinchey a spell. You don't just want options, but you want options who can impact a game and it looks like we have that ... but that idea isn't based on anything that happened against the Mariners.
Who Are Ya!? Jeremy Brockie, you made a cheeky appearance coming on for Nathan Burns and tried hard. Wanna catch up for a Double Brown before you leave us?
Nek Week we have Sydney FC. A huge game, with Sydney a point ahead of the Nix. It will be a massive stage for the Nix, in Sydney ahead of Christmas and the stage is matched by the importance of the game. I reckon this will be massive for the Phoenix, we haven't really seen them put together an encouraging performance away from home against a top opponents so why not against the Sky Blues?