Thursday, January 01, 2009

Central Coast 1 v Perth 0: Potency?

McMaster (red) and Simon (yellow) both received one match bans after their involvement in the post match melly after the whistle against Newcastle. This gave Nik Mijda his first start for the season. His 4-4-2 strike role with Sasho Petrovski lacked finish. And it took a late 70s strike from distance by John Hutchinson to separate the two teams.

Perth left, 8 time goal scorer and soon to be off contract, Dadi at home. And Wayne Srhoj was out injured. Their key player Amaral seems to have disappeared altogether now. Dutch international Victor Sikora got his first start with Nik Rukavytsya up front.

I thought that the Perth mid-field of Scot Marc Anthony, find of the season Adriano Pelligrino and Nick Rizzo and James Downey disrupted and occasionally dominated CCMs attack. Downey in particular was way too fast for Dean Heffernan at the back.

FFA site is reporting 92% possession to CCM. This site usually under-reports dominance. I didn't think it was that bad. CCM couldn't push home their advantage. Sikora looked like he was trying to teach Perth a game plan. He had a few shots on target from distance that lacked venom. Only CCM looked like scoring.

2 comments:

Bill said...

"Late 70s strike"... were there any flares in the stands when it went in..?
Anyway, bizarre management by Mitchell, CCM definitely deserved the win though. Hats off to them, the top 4 is really starting to take shape now.

john said...

thought you'd like that Bill.

- Melbourne have all the flares in the stands
- thanks for the tip on Beltrame