Geez, Western will feel very hard done by.

Roar deserved the points imo. Should have been up before the break. 

Riku is a star. Can see him stay in the hal for a while 

He's only on loan so he'll be in Japan next season.

Yes you are absolutely right, but key words are excessive force, and neither the referee or VAR concluded it was excessive force. 

But it IS up for human judgement. 
2 people may come to a different conclusion on the observation of "excessive force" .

now if you are or were at the stadium you would see how soft it is. Are we to say don't challenge too much boys it's very wet. 
No coach is going to say that!

Id suggest any ref would understand that.

Good young player, but not our best. That was a great run and finish, but up until then he hadn't done much and turned the ball over a few times with poor passes. Definitely been great having him in the team though, he works well with DWH & Joey up front. I hope they sign him on a permanent deal

And joey 

I actually think the challenge was exaggerated by the fact his right foot seemed to get caught into the heel of Berisha. Then he he was reaching for the ball with his left foot. 

I didn't think it was a red either. I can see why people can argue that it was though. Originally I thought Gillesphey slipped as he challenged Berisha, it looked awkward/clumsy. 

That’s how i saw it. 

Sure he may have the odd game where he is a bit sloppy but I would say he has been the most consistent overall through the season. Good engine, can break up play, links up well and your best goal scorer this season. Majority of his goals ended up being the match winner.  

Roar on a good run here, Moon is doing a fantastic job so far. Will be interesting to see how the remainder of the season plays out with the tough schedule. 

Exactly.

I don't need to be at the ground to see it was soft because I saw it live on tv as well as numerous replays and it was the complete opposite of soft. Gillespey had no chance of winning the ball, lined up Berisha and got him good. To me, he clearly tried to injure Berisha and Bes was fortunate to be able to get back up again.

Besh also overplayed the injury; was up and running freely once his over acting was being ignored, and played most of the game as well. He would have had a feint smile if it were a red. 

I thought this was one of the best performances from the team this year. Very pleased that we did a ROAR! and got the win it deserved. Was surprised how negative Harper was on our play. Whereas in other games we have sprayed our shots everywhere, Scott had to make 4 good to great saves to keep his team in it. I thought Jamie only made one similar save until the free kick at the death.
Really good timing to see how we fare against City this wekend.

Was interstate and only watched the game on Kayo now.

Akbari's exaggeration in the box was exactly the sort of play that Mauk sold the ref on, Davide. He maintained his direction of run into the defender and made sure that there was contact before going to ground. There was contact that was not a foul, he chose to go to ground from that contact, and the ref ignored it (as did VAR). I wish the first Mauk incident had ended the same and maybe the game would have moved on without all the shit storm that followed (and the success of the first effort by Mauk encouraged more of the same that game).

Akbari did not dive in the sense that there was contact - but he did exaggerate it (which I do not like as you know). The ref gave it the lack of respect it deserved as he should have. Same as another clip on Pierias and another on I think DWH - all legitimate contact with players appealing and being waved away - good refereeing.

Gillesphey is an odd one to me. I thought he just ran too close before trying to stop, caught Besart's ankle, then slid in a tangle in the wet. Besart does the cheesewheel when he is exaggerating the impact of an incident - I see it as one of his tells when he is playing it up - and I think there was a level of skepticism about the impact of the contact because of his history and histrionics. The comment about it being soft may have been a reference to the ground being soft rather than the incident? I don't know. Reckless seemed the right call to me and a yellow was deserving.

A good game despite the wet and heavy conditions, relatively even with both sides putting together quality possession coming forward. Plenty of chances created by both sides, and for all the 'Young keeps Roar in games' you would be a bit one-sided not to acknowledge that Scott was the only thing keeping Western in it by the end of the night.

I am enjoying our constructive play - patiently building from the back but advancing at the same time so we end up with our backline near halfway and in a great position when we then start to apply pressure further forward - but with plenty of good and bad long balls to stop the defenders knowing what to expect and being too comfortable.

I think Moon is deliberately slowing our pace and absorbing opposition pressure in the first 20-30 minutes of games before opening up. I have seen what I consider a trend in the aleague this season that teams who come out firing on all cylinders and dominating in the first half hour are often being beaten over the course of the game. A more defensive minded first half hour followed by a significant change in tempo has been a pattern of our play in my eyes.

Apologies for not spamming the airwaves with positive orange vibes over the last few days - lucky I am back to derail pessimism, balanced consideration tempered by realism, and any other less orange perspective.

Great result for us - especially pinching the goal at the end like WU did to us.

Brindell-South continues to improve and I would go so far as saying he is shining now. Danzaki has been as energetic as DWH and having the two up front adds a level of pressure on opponents coming out that adds more value than the occasional mistakes they make resulting in turnovers. Again, both of them running around dangerously and constructively also complements Champness' more crafty attacks. Who do you choose to defend in numbers if you are our opposition? Leaving any of them unmarked results in attacks on goal.

I actually think we are progressing past O'Shea as our main playmaker too - with more random attacks coming from anywhere. I want O'Shea and what he adds to our team but we are far from toothless now when he has an off game.

Deserved win on balance, and a great win in perspective. Beating both the team emerging as our most even arch enemies and Rudan.

On a footnote about numbers at Wednesday games - two of my group train on Wednesdays - that is surely not uncommon and as much a factor in attendance as wet weather and work the next day.

Not exactly the evangelical anti-diving criticism I "expected" from you ;)

Honesty in my view was more important than scoring easy points by damning it with venomous outrage. My problem with diving is initiating contact that is not otherwise there or the worst case of simply diving without contact.

I do not like seeing it in my side ever, and I do not like the ongoing protestations and shin rubbing that followed - but the contact was there and I think did sting; just that he was to blame for it.

Akbari clearly got his leg snagged - but to me he also clearly allowed his momentum to head that way to make the contact rather than sticking his leg out sideways to make contact. Very similar to how Diamanti in that game (and any number of other players in every game) tripped over a protuding leg because the opponent was silly enough to stick it out.

It was not a yellow card dive despite crappy theatrical behaviour - it was just contact that did not warrant a freekick.

Had a penalty been awarded I would have been outraged by rewarding that behaviour.
Had he tried it again I would have damned him for a diving cheat.

If that makes me less than evangelical, then so be it :)