Mariners Vs Meow - Round 20

[Atomic]

It's funny how we all have different perspectives on the same game. I have to agree that Clarkie had a cracker of a game, but we did miss Heff's attacking raids towards the end of the game. Nonetheless, a big thumbs up for Clarkie. In my opinion Travis was MoM and daylight was second. I thought his ball control, vision and willingness to commit to a challenge tonight was superb. I thought weeMac was class as well. I love the way he drops his shoulder and either attacks the ball or dummies, it keeps the defenders on their toes. WeeMac and Travis are a great mid field... I love it!

On Simon, I thought it was his usual performance. He worked his ring off!!! I got pissed off with the supporters around me who started to have a go at him at the end of the game. If he did fall off it was because he had no gas left in the tank. Matty never leaves you wondering. I liked his first touches tonight...  a big improvement from previous efforts.

Back to weeMac and Travis. At the injury break in the first half, they were really getting up Boogs and Porter. It was good to see IMO. People tell me Wilko is a good leader... but I dont see it. There are so many calls for Doig to come back so he can organize the defence. Shouldn't our captain have that under control? Anyway, what I didn't like was at the end of the match, weeMac and Travis walked off the pitch, barely acknowledging the crowd. A bit petulant if you ask me. The Coastie Boys... or whoever are down the front of Bay 23 deserved better recognition if you ask me.

All-in-all... I enjoyed the game. We got off to a slow start but clicked into gear. Brisbane are dark horses for the title and we did well against them. Yeah, we didn't win and there is room for improvement, but f**k, I was on the edge of my seat and loving every second of it... even when I was pulling what's left of my hair out.

 

[FFC Mariner]

I think Wee Mac and Travis are starting to get fed up with the dross around them.

 

[serious14]

I think Wee Mac and Travis are starting to get fed up with the dross around them.

+1

Only so much you can do on your own.  Travis is in another class - will be very surprised if he stays for next season.

 

[fedelta]

I think Wee Mac and Travis are starting to get fed up with the dross around them.

as seen when they walked off without coming over to bay 23 with everyone else

 

[Ben]

i thought simon had his worse game tonight. put in alot of effort like usual which was good but had a bad first touch and missed two clear chances. hope he improves. also thought that dmac was ok when he came on. nothing great, but it was better then he has been for a while

 

[lesley_ccm]

dyllan mcallester is a great player, unfairly left out of the first team squad for much too long!

 

[Ben]

dyllan mcallester is a great player, unfairly left out of the first team squad for much too long!

cause he was out of form or injured

 

[Forum Phoenix]

I think Wee Mac and Travis are starting to get fed up with the dross around them.

as seen when they walked off without coming over to bay 23 with everyone else

Both had decent games I thought, but equally both still gave away possession many times.

I don't see why there should be divisiveness and I don't read any such from the way the players exited tonight. I think they were probably and understandably just pissed off. As they should have been. All players - with Clarky probably the major exception, made mistakes they should not have - but after coping with a referee as bad as tonights... *shakes head* and losing in injury time after coming back from two down... your gonna be pissed at pretty much everyone and everything to be honest.

Aslo I don't think you can underestimate the difference those morons in blue made tonight. It was galling. A disgraceful embarrassment to our league.

But I STILL think we need to keep things in some bloody perspective.
We did plenty of good work out there tonight and showed a lot of spirit/heart. And at times absolutely walked all over them. But unfortunately it only takes a handful of critical mistakes and you lose a game.

Example - second goal - we had a lot of men committed forward, Pedj should not have entered into a one on one. We then defended poorly... Fantastic strike, but Sergio should have been closed down.

(To me our defense looks like we have done A LOT of work on shape when we are defending as a team, but in scramble defense situations we are at sixes and sevens... Two of the three goals tonight were as such, as were both goals against GCU. So I don't think our defense has turned to complete dribble, as we defended well tonight many times. But we defended poorly on three vital occasions and on two of those we were beaten by class finishes.

The other critical mistakes were Matty's miss - also his inbox air swing. Kwassies miss. Boogs header miss. And Pedj's off timing when he slid in at the end of the game and gave away the free. We definitely had the lions share of the clear cut chances tonight.

Take even half of those 6 odd critical errors out and we win this game and well.

What i think is that was a very painful loss at a very painful time in a season - when we have gone from looking a good chance and likely... to facing the fact we will instead be battling to be in the finals. I don't like it, in fact f**king hate it. But the fact is we still seem to be lacking the quality we need in the final third - and a key defensive player -  so I'm hoping Doig will be in next week and Jonathon Brown proves to be of worth come January.

As to poor crowd -what can Mariners/FFA expect - the writing is on the wall, if you play only four bloody home games in the first 15 rounds of the competition - you are very unlikely - especially after a SIX week complete absence of games to have built any momentum...

Then if you finally begin playing games at home, and you can't win one?
It easily becomes  "Look Dave I know there's a game on... but the kids really need to see their grandma in sydney... yadda yadda...

The difference to last year is that people were caught up in the Mariners decently scheduled season... and it would have been more like... "NO MUM Pleasssseeeee!!! We have to go to the game! Please can't we go to Grandmas another day!?

This time... in all fairness... its been a pretty bloody non existant season to follow... And so only the most faithful are interested, everyone else just hasn;t been caught up this year.

What we absolutely need is an exciting Marquee, decent schedule, no bloody Canberra games and to win regularly at home for awhile.

And all will be well.

 

[fedelta]

that's a real proper post.

 

[Sean]

I think Wee Mac and Travis are starting to get fed up with the dross around them.

+1

Only so much you can do on your own.  Travis is in another class - will be very surprised if he stays for next season.

Yep let's sell them and do them a favour. Too good for CCM.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Hopefully all this bollocks about getting a top 2 finish will end now.

Before we kicked off, 6th was good for me given our squad. We have had a few decent results but we lack quality up front (apart from Matty) and Doig's constant absence has hurt us badly as we have no leadership at the back.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

that's a real proper post.

:-*

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Hopefully all this bollocks about getting a top 2 finish will end now.

Before we kicked off, 6th was good for me given our squad. We have had a few decent results but we lack quality up front (apart from Matty) and Doig's constant absence has hurt us badly as we have no leadership at the back.

You won't hear a peep out of me unless we win our next 6 straight and are only a point or two off the pace.

 

[FFC Mariner]

I think Wee Mac and Travis are starting to get fed up with the dross around them.

+1

Only so much you can do on your own.  Travis is in another class - will be very surprised if he stays for next season.

Yep let's sell them and do them a favour. Too good for CCM.

Well they probably are far too good for the players around them and if they hadnt had such bad injuries earlier in their careers they wouldnt even know we exist let alone play for us.

We are a stepping stone at best for them both.

 

[offtheball]

Surely Crowell as DM and Bojic at right back is a better option than last night's formation.

Simon's miss was the turning point. Van Dyk scores 60 seconds later. Would have done wonders for Kwasniks confidence as well

 

[nero]

Ever since V4 when bay 16 became the official supporters bay the numbers in the supporters bay have halved in size.

V3 at this time of the year was amazing. During the 5-4 game the atmosphere was as good as anywhere in the world. Lets hope with a new style of play, marquee and some local jnrs coming through that we can reach those highs again.

 

[Sonic_beats_Mario]

in regards to the crowd - the game was too early 6pm cricket across the coast doesnt usually finsh til around 6. I know my husband turned up about 10mins late to the game and he was only playing at Adcock park.

6pm Sunday sure thats ok but 6pm Saturday is totally stupid

 

[Teddy Bear]

you know we are in trouble when there were more brisbane fans in the kendall than mariners,  which is what happened in the first half hour of the kendall opening.

 

[Roy Law]

Forum Phoenix makes a lot of good points esp about the crowd.
If I was a neutral I would have found the game very entertaining; as a Mariners' fan I thought the quality of play by both sides was questionable, apart from two great pieces of skill by two players who are known to have genuine ability, but I still was very entertained.
Can't agree about Clark; he's a hardworking fitness coach and when he's at left back the team is unbalanced, I think he only got one cross in from the left, and he's a poor passer of the ball (not that that would make him stand out in the game). I thought Travis worked hard and tried to make things happen but deserved the spray from Wilko at the end after failing to pick up Mackay. McGlinchey showed some decent skills without quite getting the end product.
Simon worked bloody hard but has to score those chances - Van Dyk hardly had a shot in the game but still scored, Matty has to make the chances count (Perth, clear header weakly put wide). My only comment on Kwasnik is that other websites are now suggesting Michael Zullo as a candidate for the Socceroos; Lawrie should have taken him off at half time and brought on Elrich in his natural wide right position. Mcallister should have come one (for anyone) and played in the middle alongside Matty. It's not as if Queensland were any good, they looked as nervous as hell at the back. I thought Wilko was the only decent defender and my heart went out to him when he made a lung bursting brilliantly timed run  from the back and Matty Simon not only didn't see him, he didn't even look. No wonder Wilko walked back.
It's not over til it's over and we have Doig to come back and Brown to look forward to and just a month ago we were the team to beat - it could ahppen again, this is the A League!

 

[Razorback]

What about simons miss in the first half, Kwas in the second half. Can we please sign Van Dijk. Or a striker that knows how to at least tap a ball in FFS!!!!

Have to agree with all comments regarding Bojic. He looks useless in the mids. would have prefered Crowell.

Also with WeeMac and Travis. Why would you wanna stay with the spastics coaching them and the general lack of ability they play with. Why not twitter that one LM