The Nix Fix: Give us a win Ernie!
Give us a win Ernie. Give us a win!
It’s now round eight of the A-League and the Phoenix are yet to register a win. They’ve come close, but coming close in football counts for nothing. They need wins.
Under the guidance of Ernie Merrick the Phoenix have been playing some great football this season with changes being made weekly with the goal to improve the team. It’s been refreshing for fans to see after years of Ricki Herbert sticking to the same format week after week regardless of the results. However it’s now time to start turning these good performances into wins and collecting points for their hard efforts.
They get a great chance to claim that elusive first win this Sunday at home against the Western Sydney Wanderers. When the two teams met back in round two it resulted in a 1-1 draw in which the Phoenix dominated the majority of the match after a slack first twenty minutes. The Nix continually attacked the Wanderers goal in the second half but just couldn’t find a winner.
While the Wanderers have been the benchmark of the competition for the past couple of seasons, they are currently nowhere near their best. They head across the Tasman after receiving a 3-1 spanking last week from Brisbane Roar who now sit proudly on top of the table. Wanderers marquee player Shinji Ono is likely to miss the match which will benefit the Nix as they look to hand the men from Sydney’s west rare back to back defeats.
The Nix will have a few gaps of their own this week with regular starting striker Jeremy Brockie out for the week with a slight hamstring tear and rookie defensive player Reece Caira left out of the match day squad. Merrick has taken the opportunity to give the young ex-Wanderers development player a rest having started the first six matches for the Nix. The subsequent shuffle will likely see Manny Muscat or Michael Boxall start at left back while Brockie’s starting spot will be taken by either Paul Ifill or Kenny Cunningham, who came off the bench last week to score his first goal in Wellington colours after a less than impressive start to his time at the Nix.
With those changes in mind this is how the Nix could line up this Sunday…
. Moss
. Fenton Sigmund Durante Muscat
. Hicks Lia
. Cunningham Hernandez Riera
. Huysegems
If Merrick starts with these players on the park then I’d expect to see Ifill come on early in the second half for Huysegems. Ifill has looked good off the bench previously this season and coming on with fresh legs can cause a few problems for tiring defenses. Boxall could even come on into the left back position with Muscat pushing up into the midfield at the expense of either Lia or Hicks and then perhaps young Tyler Boyd could replace Cunningham in the last 10-15 minutes.
Hopefully we see a strong crowd at the Cake Tin on Sunday afternoon, It will be the first “home” game for the Nix since round one as they have taken games out of Wellington and around the country to Napier and Christchurch. The forecast is for wind and rain (classic Wellington weather) which hopefully won’t deter the fans.
The tightness of the table means that although the Nix currently sit second to last, they are still well in with a chance of making the playoffs but they need to start turning the good performances into wins.
This Sunday is a perfect time to do just that. Give us a win Ernie!
Google+
