We're top of the A-League table!

That's pretty cool if you ask me and it's thoroughly deserved. Remember those three games where the Phoenix played well, but simply couldn't knock a few goals it? Yeah, you probably do because I keep bringing it up but that was a key period in the season for the Nix that has helped them climb to the top and could be huge in the overall context of their season. While we clearly weren't at our best, we didn't suffer defeat and we somehow found a way to emerge with three draws which set us up for a run at the best teams in the league.

We beat the Melbourne Victory, we beat Adelaide United and on the weekend we defeated the Perth Glory which was a lovely defeat for a number of reasons. Perth Glory, the club, served up plenty of banter leading into the game and then this guy who, fair play, scored a nice goal decided to celebrate by screaming MOTHERFUCKER into the camera.

I mean, cool, but clearly you're a bit of a twat when you celebrate like that, lol.

Anywho the Nix opened the scoring with Roy Krishna who got a bit lucky, well kind of lucky because everything around the goal was pretty slick. Vince Lia perfectly split some dumb Glory defenders with a delicious ball for Louis Fenton and then Krishna was rewarded for his effort with a rebound goal.

The winning goal was pure joy from Krishna, picking the ball up on the right and just having a go, chopping it inside and blazing a shot in at the near post. Just like that the Phoenix had beaten one of the better teams in the A-League and the game had it all with the Nix having plenty of chances but were unable to finish them, a bit of luck and finally a nice finish and then grit to hold on to the 2-1 win. All we do is win.

Win without Nathan Burns which many in the A-League would view as a shock because well, Burns is Australian so they probably all think that without him the Nix will be shite. Joel Griffiths may not be the man to lead the Nix to the promised land, but this sort of game was the exact reason he was brought over the ditch to offer some stern A-League experience when called upon. While he wasn't much more than solid, solid was what the Nix needed because other players, mainly Krishna stood up.

Krishna put in a great shift, touching the ball 45 times which was almost as many as Michael McGlinchey and scored two goals from his seven shots. Not sure if the first goal was a shot or whatever but he was in the right place and the right time and the team were rewarded. I also love that of Krishna's seven shots, six of them came inside the box which shows that he's getting into good positions when his homies have the ball and/or he's playing direct, eager to take on defenders. 

Some more interesting stats from the game are that the Glory had the majority of the possession with 54.2%, won most of the duels and had four times as many corners as the Nix but our lads had 16 interceptions. That four of them came from Albert Riera is a beautiful thing and backs up our view that he's the fucking man, his timing is impeccable and then his quick, accurate distribution gets us on the front foot. Riera had four and so did Andrew Durante.

Who Are Ya!? It's all about goals, scoring them and Krishna bagged a double which could have been a lot more but we won, so the double is handy. We might have been a bit light on goal scoring nous with no Burns, but Krishna did what needed to be done and is showing that the Nix are going to be a team with plenty of strike power at full strength.

Nek Week the Nix face the Brisbane Roar. This will be an interesting wee contest because the Nix really need to grab the win before they face Sydney FC the week after who currently sit in 2nd spot. The Roar narrowly lost to Sydney on the weekend and the way we're playing we should be able to handle them with our defence looking pretty solid as usual and hopefully we'll have Burns back to spread the load around up front.