In yet another poor performance the Spirit went down 3-0 with Damien Mori of Adelaide scoring one of the easiest hat-tricks he'll ever get. First goal he was left unmarked at a corner for a free header, third goal was the same from a free kick wide on the right, and the second goal was a one on one with the keeper after a through ball in behind the defence.
Spirit basically never looked like scoring (again).
Forgot to mention crowd. Wasn't announced, but I'd say probably only 6-7,000 which was not all that surprising given the weather and recent poor form. However, I don't see the crowd increasing for the next home game. The team was loudly jeered at the end of the game.
After goal number three, the MacCartney Stand started signing Sack the Board (not sure why, it wasn't the board that left Mori unmarked), We are Shit, Sack Arnold and various other songs in similar vein.
Probably the worst aspect of the Spirit's play from my point of view was the negative play. Too often the Spirit's first option was to pass back before going forward. Again there was a reluctance to shoot when the opportunity arose. Saad seemed to be the only player who wanted to go forward, and he went off (he appeared to be injured) towards the end of the first half, to be replaced by Perinich who showed some pace when he had room but was pushed off the ball too easily by defenders. Enes was obviously showing the Christmas spirit (no pun intended) a week early given most of his passes ended up with Adelaide players.
I think the main positive for Spirit was the good performance by the young defenders, Culina and Sobczyck. Although Sobczyck was at fault for the first goal and possibly the third he did a good job marking Mori for most of the game.