Another exciting week of footy has come and gone and I'll tell ya what, the leaderboard is tightening up faster then my hammies during pre-season. We had a few upsets as teams are still struggling to find the form they were in before the break.

The first game of the week was between the Newcastle Jets and the Brisbane Roar. The match finished in a tense 2-1 win to Brisbane. Goals to Jean Carlos Solorzano (Bri), Radovan Pavicevic (New) and Thomas Broich (Bri). Newcastle will be disappointed with themselves as they were the better team. Now don't go and get too cocky because the performance was still average but out of the two average sides you were the best. All jokes aside though they did well to come back from an absolute pummelling last week and put together passages of promising footy. Both goals they conceded were equally poor and should have been easily stopped. There are definitely areas to work on but they are improving which is a good sign.

The second game of the week was between the Central Coast Mariners and Adelaide United. The Mariners where able to produce a bit of an upset here taking out the match 2-1. Goals to Awer Mabil (Ade), Nick Fitzgerald (Cen) and Joshua Rose (Cen). This is classic Adelaide. They are so inconsistent. They go down and lose in the dying minutes of the game after a fortnight ago absolutely punishing a team 7-0, it must be so frustrating for their fans. I'm not wanting to take anything away from the Mariners here as they really did take a never say die approach to the match and looked dangerous throughout. The first goal definitely lifted spirits and had them raging to get a second, which they did. Well done.

The third game of the week was the Melbourne Derby between obviously the Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City. The crowd was electric with over 40,000 screaming fans filling Etihad stadium. The match finished with the Melbourne Victory taking out the match and bragging rights with a very dominant 3-0 win. Goals to Besart Berisha (Vic), Kosta Barbarouses (Vic), and Fahid Ben Khalfallah (Vic).

I think City where poor in this match, And the Victory took full advantage. Kosta Barbarouses was outstanding. He is such a class player, and his goal was absolute top notch. It came from a set piece that was played into the box and he played the ball accross his body and into the top of the net. It's hard to explain but the technical difficulty is so high and because of this I am awarding him the Phibber's Goal Of The Week. On a side note Berisha was a little average early on and missed a couple of opportunities that he would usually take, possibly making him angry and crazy so he decided to square up to Jason Hoffman. I'll tell you it would have made me weak if Hoffman had knocked him out. Sadly they just locked eyes for an awkward amount of time.

The 4th game of the week was between title leaders the Perth Glory and Sydney FC. The match finished with a dramatic 3-1 win to Sydney FC as Perth struggle to find the form they were in prior to the mid season break. Goals to Mark Janko (Syd), Milos Dimitrijevic, (Syd), Denis Kramar (Per), and Bernie Ibini (Syd). There were 9 cards shown in this match and of the 9, 3 of them were red cards which is out of control. Both teams especially Sydney need to sort out their discipline.

The first two was a double sending off for a bit of a scuffle in the box. Now I know it's football not rugby league but I'm have mixed feelings about this red card. I think Dino Djulbic should have probably been sent as he threw a punch push kinda thingy, but I think Jacques Fatty might have been a little unlucky. Sure he retaliated but worthy of a red? I don't think so. The third red card was absolutely deserving. Nikolai Petkovic was already on a yellow and decided to reach out and grab the ball with his hand when he had been beaten. It was such a knob head thing to do. As a result this knob has received the Phibber's Knob Of The Week.

The final game of the week was between the Western Sydney Wanderers and the Wellington Phoenix. And I am embarrassed and slightly shocked to say the Phoenix handed the Wanderers their first win of the season. The Wanderers managed to get up and take out the match 2-0 with goals to Nikita Rukavystya (Wes) and Brendon's Santalab (Wes). Credit to Nikita who scored a great goal whilst being so far off balance he was almost lying on the floor when he made the shot. The Wanderers looked really dangerous from long range and they let rip a few screamers but an angry and frustrated Glen Moss was able to keep the shots at bay. It just wasn't the Phoenix's day, they peppered the goal but nothing was finding the back of the net. It was actually painful to watch as Phoenix player after Phoenix player kept coming agonisingly close but not being able to make it count. Anyway credit where credits due to the Wanderers they defended well and as a result have their first win of the season.

That wraps up another exciting week of footy. And as a said earlier the league is really heating up now and the gaps are starting close up. This has the making for an exciting end to the season.