Someone who gets paid to schedule games, someone with much more brain power than myself (apparently), someone who I assume holds a position in Football Federation of Australia was wise enough to schedule a game in Cairns, in December, in the afternoon. How dumb.

Now that I've got that out of my system I can reflect on a fairly frustrating game between the Wellington Phoenix and the Brisbane Roar, which Brisbane won 2-1. Understandably the Phoenix fell off in the second half, presenting Brisbane with more chances and while Brisbane striker Jamie Maclaren missed his fair share of opportunities, he was there when it counted to snatch the winner away from our Nix.

Roy Krishna put Wellington ahead in the first-half, with a shimmy/multiple shimmies inside the box and a nice shot dragged back across to the left of the goal and life was good. 1-0 away in Cairns was a great spot to be in, however while it's frustrating not to be able to seal the deal the conditions certainly played their part. Another key factor was the inexperience of Mathew Ridenton at left-back and Alex Rufer in the midfield; they performed strongly despite the adversity although they were stop-gap selections.

Ridenton especially had a tough night against Brisbane's Henrique who is well known to A-League fans thanks to his speed and guile down their right flank. Ridenton not only had to mark Henrique, he had to do it for 90 minutes in tough conditions and while he did get shown up a few times, Ridenton always showed impressive signs and will be better off for this experience. 

Rufer played alongside Albert Riera and Alex Rodriquez in the midfield, before coming off for Jeffrey Sarpong early in the second half. Rufer toiled hard and produced many quality touches which is important as he should feature in this midfield consistently in coming seasons but it did feel like the Nix were missing the composure of Vinnie Lia and his combination with Riera.

A win would have been great, a draw would have sufficed and a loss sucks. Andrew Durante however kept me on chirping away at the telly watching this game as he was simply everywhere and was once again the Phoenix's best player in my books. Without Durante this would have definitely have been a far bigger loss as the skipper's name was always mentioned when a Brisbane attack broke down. Regular readers will know how I love my interceptions which is usually the domain of Riera so for Durante to step in and steal the ball no less than nine times was a mighty effort, especially when you consider that Riera and Louis Fenton had six while no Roar player had more than three. 

Sometimes with players like Durante we tend to overlook their brilliance for the more flashy exploits of Krishna or Roly Bonevacia for example. If there's one positive to take away from this loss as a fan: it was another example of what a great player/leader Durante is.

It's always easy to say this after the game but if this game was played in sane conditions then I would have been confident in the Phoenix's ability to grab the win, such was the mood that Krishna and Roly were in. Roly was at his best, spinning, jerking and dancing around while Krishna's pace constant proved menacing ... if only Krishna could have given Roly a yard of pace as he was chased down by Brisbane's Jade North after Sarpong delivered a pass that sliced through Brisbane's defence. That would have given the Nix a 2-0 lead, ah.

Again, it's worth watching the Phoenix just to see Krishna, Durante and Bonevacia in action.

I would have loved to have seen more impact from Sarpong and Blake Powell, which is a bit harsh but Brisbane's subs produced a goal and with fatigue setting in, these two could have done a bit more. Sarpong is still one of the most interesting players in kiwi sport as he hasn't quite delivered what we though he might (despite that pass to Roly) and with the way Ernie! is juggling his minutes I can only think that he's still settling into his A-League work.

This sets up a crucial home game next weekend against Sydney FC, doubling as a return to Wellington for the Phoenix. Again we wait to see what team Ernie! will select with fitness and form meaning there will be changes, plus it's a big game so you'd have to expect a full strength line-up to put on a show in front of the home faithful.