What a tease that was. Sign two players who should immediate aid the cause but then neither’s available to play a few days later when the Nix are away to the top team in the league, a team that hasn’t lost at home in close to two years.
She’s all happening at Phoenix headquarters. The ol’ mid-season player shakeup. Out go Watto and Ali A and in come Flappy Velaphi and The Python.
Not a lot of developing news here or anything, but before Smithy left Ipswich for Colorado he was given a few lovely send-offs by the club he’d served for a more than a decade.
See, you’ll never get anywhere with local lads. Just as we’ve always said. Picking players out of the youth team and actually playing them? Giving teenagers regular starts and expecting results? Bah, ridiculous idea.
The Wellington Phoenix had taken seven points from their last three games, having only taken seven from their previous 13, and following on from a 3-2 win in Newcastle that might have been their best win of the season, while Adelaide United were three games without a win...
If you were listing the obvious destinations for kiwi footballers leaving the humble shores of Aotearoa to make it in the professional ranks then England would be right up there. Sweden seems to be high on the list as well, the Netherlands are becoming a bit of a hub too
We can pretty much put the transfer talk to bed for a few months with Thommo. As already speculated in a few places, he was always much more likely to wait to move on until the end of the season but now he’s actually come out and said as much
These are funky times in the Premiership. These are the times when squad depth is essential, when you need those new fellas to step up and contribute.
Adam Mitchell's a young kiwi footy player out there doing his thing with Bolton Wanderers and, being a good chap and all, he went and answered a few questions for The Niche Cache...
In a season with a few more blessings, the Wellington Phoenix might have taken 12 points from their last four games. As it happens, they’ve still grabbed five of the most valuable.
With Chris Wood and Winston Reid both out injured and Ryan Thomas still on winter break, Flying Kiwis has mostly evolved into a transfer gossip thing this week. Good thing Jeremy Brockie's got some very big news then.
Don’t go spreading this all around or anything but you know those quiet doubts about Auckland City from last week? Well they’re looking pretty legit right about now.
See, there you go. All it took for the Welly Nix to finally win another game was a controversial early red card to an opposition defender, a couple early subs...
Reid scored an own goal, by the way. Turned the ball into his own net a quarter of an hour into the contest after some Harry Kane-ery but Harry Hotspur had wandered offside so it didn’t count. Wipe that sweat off the brow.
If the first round back after the holiday break was supposed to begin separating the Premiership contenders from the pretenders then it did a pretty solid job of that. If it was supposed to clear much else up beyond that then not so much.
The way the Nix have lined up in the last two games hasn’t made for the sexiest football, obviously. Five dudes at the back and a deep midfield has combined for some very lenient views on the concept of possession.
2017 was a massive year for football in New Zealand. Headlined of course by the All Whites and their World Cup qualifiers against Peru, plus the Confederations Cup trip, but there was plenty going on all across the park.
There’s a little bit of confusion around the NZ Premiership tagline: ‘Where All Whites Are Made’. This is an amateur league after all, one which the best players from Aotearoa are seeking to escape.
Ordinarily a 0-0 draw away to Central Coast isn’t such a bad result for the Wellington Phoenix. Problem is that when you’ve only won one game from 12 and are slipping further and further out to sea at the bottom of the table, draws don’t really do the trick.
Chris Wood had one major moment of note here, working hard to win the ball back from Serge Aurier in the attacking third. He fed the ball wide to Steven Defour and then gassed it to the near post where the cross was swiftly played...