Round 5 Tips

Round 5 of A-League Season 7 is upon, and here are PM's tips for the weekend. After watching Brisbane absolutely tear apart a sorry Adelaide, what can we expect from the upcoming action?

Adelaide United are hosting Melbourne Heart at Hindmarsh, in a Battle of the Cellar Dwellers. Both clubs are going through difficult periods at the moment. In truth, Heart do not deserve to be in such a sorry state, being unfortunate to lose to Perth and Newcastle and largely dominating encounters against Sydney and Victory. Adelaide have looked distinctly disorganised, and were thoroughly outclassed by the reigning champions, throwing doubt on the viability of their title challenge. Coolen will probably have refocussed on a defensive game plan, emphasising Adelaide's strength on the counter. Expect a cagey occassion, likely a draw, or a narrow home side win.

Predicted Score: Adelaide 1-1 Heart

Wellington welcome Central Coast to the Cake Tin. Wellington have performed more brightly than most pundits, including PM, had predicted. Dani Sanchez has looked very promising. The Kiwis were unlucky to lose to Victory, with the result very much against the run of play in the first half at least. The Nix usually hold a rather large home game advantage, attributable to the distance of travel. PM expects more of the same.
Predicted Score: Wellington 1-0 Central Coast

Newcastle host Perth. The West Australians are flying rather high at the moment in second place. But as PM have noted before, Ferguson's tactics are fairly elementary and by now opposition coaches will have surely figured them out.
Predicted Score: Newcastle 2-1 Perth

The Victory welcome the rampant reigning champions Brisbane at Etihad. Surprisingly, the Navy Blues have been rather arrogant in the media, and Brisbane have been happy to concede the 'advantage', to the papers at least. They won't be so gracious on the pitch. PM has rather long-windedly (2000+words) examined the Victory's problems this season, namely trying to implement possession based football with slow defenders and a distinct lack of passing midfielders. If Durakovic persists in his implementation of possession football, expect the Oranje to run rampant; we might very well see a tennis score. If Durakovic chooses to revert to counter-attacking football, PM would still expect the Roar to dominate.
Predicted Score: Victory 0-3 Brisbane

And finally, Sydney FC welcome fellow Bling FC aspirants Gold Coast United to the SFS. Sydney have become revitalised due to the return of superb passing midfielder Karol Kisel, which has liberated the creative talents of Nick Carle. Gold Coast have performed similarly positively, with the form of Maceo Rigters especially deserving of attention. Expect a fairly even encounter, likely to end in a draw.
Predicted Score: Sydney 2-2 Gold Coast

And let's see how PM's predictions worked out in Round 4. PM were correct in predicting Brisbane and Central Coast wins, but were incorrect for the other three matches. Oh well. Again a disclaimer; these predictions are based on which team PM 'expects' to 'dominate' the encounter. Matches can turn on red cards, penalties, moments of singular genius etc. So don't blow all your cash.

On an unrelated note, there have been interesting developments on the sidebar supporters poll. Amazingly, there are more Heart supporters who read PM than Victory supporters, despite the 3-1 advantage. And intriguingly, there is yet to be a single Perth supporter who has visited PM. Just a thought.

LATER ADDITION:
A Perth supporter has finally found PM - cue trumpets. There are now representatives from every A-League club that read Pass and Move.

To all those PM readers who have left generous comments of support, I have responded below them, so please don't feel slighted.