Cole Goal Wins Scrappy 1-0 Result Against Heart

Very scrappy win!

The santalab miss in the first half was bad, Juric should have passed to Haliti instead of shot at goal! Haliti was in acres of space!

Good away performance, did very well to hold off Heart in the end. 

Very impressive debut from Spiranovic. D'Apuzzo weak link again, has to step up as he definitely has it in him as shown last season. 

Did we do a 'we love you' diss chant?

Juric has to learn to play as as a team player. But great win. Cole did well, as did Spiranovic. We really have depth in our squad now. Popa building it up nicely.

Well done boys.

For me:

* Our fans - shut the gates. Best of any team of any code in the country.

* Solid for most part of the game. We dropped a little early on and when Ono went off.

* away win - brilliant.

* Melbourne Heart - plelay well in parts but cannot hold it together for decent chunks of the game. Really, they are slightly better then last season at this stage but nothing too spectacular. Maybe with injured players coming back may do better but given their failure to keep their structure for most the game its no guarantee.

* I hope Juric is ok!!! He is a striker granted but needs to pass a little more. Mooy at one stage wide open and he took the shot himself.

* I saw a Heart fan with some binoculars - probably looking hard to find some structure in his team

Not as accommodating as some of you comrades. We were dire for a considerable portion of the game. Have to question popa's set-up tonight.

Good away performance, did very well to hold off Heart in the end.  Very impressive debut from Spiranovic. D'Apuzzo weak link again, has to step up as he definitely has it in him as shown last season.

 

I can't believe Popa keeps playing D'Apuzzo. Put in a competent left back with a bit of speed and our defence is unbreakable. Spira is a legend. He will take us forward this season. Played out from the back brilliantly.

Well done to the traveling fans. Didn't really hear MH at all.

Pretty scrappy performance, happy to come away with the win. Hope Juric is alright, he knew straight away it wasn't good.

Santa had a pretty good game but really should have put that header away. (The one that came off the crossbar) As soon as he finds the back of the net i think he will really gain confidence and score many more goals.

Bold lineup chosen by Popa. Maybe just getting ready for a big game next week.

I love Jerome Polenz!!! His pre match interview thing was good. Loved the way he didn't shy away from talking about his recent tackles. Loved how he spoke about teaching Garcia a lesson.

Were the drums banned from entering the stadium?

I couldn't hear any drums.

Not as accommodating as some of you comrades. We were dire for a considerable portion of the game. Have to question popa's set-up tonight.

You said it Zola. It is Popas set up. We will concede possession and hope to hit quickly on the break.

We kept a decent defensive structure during the match, yes a few lapses, but it was really a scrappy midfield battle and we have trouble dominating the mids this season.

Our defensive structure - defending as a unit is what gets us through.

we won im not gonna go into detail

travelling fans were awesome.

heart active basically stand really close together and try think of what nt would do in their situation.

Not as accommodating as some of you comrades. We were dire for a considerable portion of the game. Have to question popa's set-up tonight.

I don't believe we are nowhere near our best. Juric needs to learn to play with the team. But when we hit our straps we will be as dangerous as ****. Why play all your cards in the first few rounds. It's a long season.

 

Not as accommodating as some of you comrades. We were dire for a considerable portion of the game. Have to question popa's set-up tonight.

I don't believe we are nowhere near our best. Juric needs to learn to play with the team. But when we hit our straps we will be as dangerous as ****. Why play all your cards in the first few rounds. It's a long season.

 

I thought he linked up very well tonight. He ignored 1 lay off in favour of the shot and tbh with the way he strikes them I've no problem with him shooting from wherever the hell he wants. 

 

Not as accommodating as some of you comrades. We were dire for a considerable portion of the game. Have to question popa's set-up tonight.

I don't believe we are nowhere near our best. Juric needs to learn to play with the team. But when we hit our straps we will be as dangerous as ****. Why play all your cards in the first few rounds. It's a long season.

He is resting players and chalking down how many points he expects to get per match. Perhaps this match he would have been happy with a point.

Ideally we should hit our peak in a month or two. We have Champs league this year and Popa is managing the players.

 

Not as accommodating as some of you comrades. We were dire for a considerable portion of the game. Have to question popa's set-up tonight.

You said it Zola. It is Popas set up. We will concede possession and hope to hit quickly on the break.We kept a decent defensive structure during the match, yes a few lapses, but it was really a scrappy midfield battle and we have trouble dominating the mids this season.Our defensive structure - defending as a unit is what gets us through.

We are still learning to play out from the back so we will have some errors in us. But in terms of speed of play we had it all over MH. I think people have to understand that ALL away games will be tough.

 

 

Not as accommodating as some of you comrades. We were dire for a considerable portion of the game. Have to question popa's set-up tonight.

I don't believe we are nowhere near our best. Juric needs to learn to play with the team. But when we hit our straps we will be as dangerous as ****. Why play all your cards in the first few rounds. It's a long season.

 I thought he linked up very well tonight. He ignored 1 lay off in favour of the shot and tbh with the way he strikes them I've no problem with him shooting from wherever the hell he wants.

Not when he has a player like Aaron Mooy who has to just tap the ball in the net.

Juric limping off didn't look good at all he could be out for a few weeks.

Very sloppy at times maybe due to team setup

Our away fans put the Heart to shame and I hope they have reoccurring nightmares of Wanderers fans singing them off there own home ground.

Who captained the team tonight?

Fans = amazing.

Team = mediocre.

Juric limping off didn't look good at all he could be out for a few weeks.

 

Who captained the team tonight?

Topor Stanley

 

Not as accommodating as some of you comrades. We were dire for a considerable portion of the game. Have to question popa's set-up tonight.

You said it Zola. It is Popas set up. We will concede possession and hope to hit quickly on the break.

 

We kept a decent defensive structure during the match, yes a few lapses, but it was really a scrappy midfield battle and we have trouble dominating the mids this season.

 

Our defensive structure - defending as a unit is what gets us through.

 

Don't know whether you are agreeing with me or not? At any rate, you don't have to be Beckenbauer to know that a direct game such as ours doesn't work in the absence of width and speed. Cole and Santalab offer little width and simply aren't a potent threat. Polenz was effectively right wing at regular intervals. 

As such, I'd have liked us to be a bit more compact, and utilise Ono, and Mooy more often. 

Look it remains to be seen whether our boys can learn to play through the mids and dominate. But we need to give them time.

There are no easy games. We had a couple of key players out and still won away. The boys gave 100% and did us proud.

Sure i woukd like us to play like Barca but the reality is changing our style will take time and who knows how well we can do it.

In the mean time we keep it tight and pick up the points then im happy.

 

 

Not as accommodating as some of you comrades. We were dire for a considerable portion of the game. Have to question popa's set-up tonight.

 

You said it Zola. It is Popas set up. We will concede possession and hope to hit quickly on the break.

We kept a decent defensive structure during the match, yes a few lapses, but it was really a scrappy midfield battle and we have trouble dominating the mids this season.

Our defensive structure - defending as a unit is what gets us through.

Don't know whether you are agreeing with me or not? At any rate, you don't have to be Beckenbauer to know that a direct game such as ours doesn't work in the absence of width and speed. Cole and Santalab offer little width and simply aren't a potent threat. Polenz was effectively right wing at regular intervals.

 

As such, I'd have liked us to be a bit more compact, and utilise Ono, and Mooy more often.

But there are also positives.

Not good at all, not happy with the performance, happy with the result! , honeslty why is TPL still playing football, he makes me nervous every time he goes near the ball, sign him up for the GWS, seriously beuachamp and Spiranovic  I can believe,,,,

Anyways it is what it is. MV this week I expect no empty seats at home.. CMon  you wanderers!

It wasn't pretty and a fair few players yet to reach the form they showed last year. However, with 3 wins and 2 draws I firmly believe we will not succumb to '2nd season syndrome' as many critics have suggested. We still have the structure to beat any team in this comp as well as having a good crack at the ACL.

Not the best game we've played today, Heart dominated possession and had more scoring chances but they just couldn't finish.

Heart hit 2 posts, we hit 1.

We could've made it 2-0 if Juri chad given the ball too Mooy.

I guess it's a striker thing to hog the ball.

As Ian Holloway once said in a post match press conference.......( worth seeing on youtube its quality)

" a win's a win " ......    and even if its ugly we will take it......cause we are top of the league ***** !!!

 

 

Not as accommodating as some of you comrades. We were dire for a considerable portion of the game. Have to question popa's set-up tonight.

You said it Zola. It is Popas set up. We will concede possession and hope to hit quickly on the break.We kept a decent defensive structure during the match, yes a few lapses, but it was really a scrappy midfield battle and we have trouble dominating the mids this season.Our defensive structure - defending as a unit is what gets us through.

We are still learning to play out from the back so we will have some errors in us. But in terms of speed of play we had it all over MH. I think people have to understand that ALL away games will be tough.

 

 

Not as accommodating as some of you comrades. We were dire for a considerable portion of the game. Have to question popa's set-up tonight.

I don't believe we are nowhere near our best. Juric needs to learn to play with the team. But when we hit our straps we will be as dangerous as ****. Why play all your cards in the first few rounds. It's a long season.

 I thought he linked up very well tonight. He ignored 1 lay off in favour of the shot and tbh with the way he strikes them I've no problem with him shooting from wherever the hell he wants.

Not when he has a player like Aaron Mooy who has to just tap the ball in the net.

 

going by mooys shots on target ratio he'd be likely to miss it from there

For the ladies and gents that went down to Melbourne, you should all be proud of yourselves, I sure am.

What the **** is Feart going to do when 1000+ of us travel down there in April, lol.

Shitt their pants.

Smile my friends! No stresssss... We won. Yes wasnt pretty, but we won. Would you rather carve up on field but lose??

Hopefully sets us up for a cracking performance next week.

Enough cannot be said of the travelling fans tonight. Epic performance.

3 points is 3 points. Winning a scrappy game like this is sometimes as good as winning in fluent fashion 4 nil.

Not every game is going to be a great spectacle and in the context of the season winning games like this against a team already quite desperate not to lose touch with the chasing pack is character building.

Good to see Spira get a run; Cole likewise... especially as it might give Bridge a boot in the arse he needs. Beach was just unlucky not to be selected on the night. Always nice for other to have a rest.

Mooy was improved and Polenz & NTS continuing their fine form. 

Juric the only negative for me with the lack of lay off for Mooy. Inexcusable. 

Sanalab lol it was too close for you... stick to the 25 metre spectacular 

Bring on the blue melb pricks

Have to say, apart from that ridiculous goal mouth scramble I never really felt threatened by Heart. We did well for the most part and just restricted them to long range pot shots. I mean it should have been 2-0 before they even had a shot on goal had Santa finished that chance. Heart looked good until they had to try and create a chance and then just had nothing, but I guess that will happen when you have David Williams as your #10.