Central Coast Mariners rallied in spectacular fashion with two late goals to deny Sydney FC their first win in nine games.
On 11 minutes, George Blackwood drove at the heart of the Mariners’ defence before he stepped inside and from 25 yards fired a curling drive past despairing shot-stopper Paul Izzo.
Central Coast grew into the game late in the half, but failed to capitalise and score an equaliser.
They were made to pay on the stroke of half-time when Shane Smeltz was played in, after Brandon O’Neill took a quick free-kick and the New Zealander cut inside his marker and finished with aplomb.
The second half mustered very little in the form of goalmouth action, but in the 86th minute Roy O’Donovan volleyed home from close range to set up a nervy finish for the away side.
Just five minutes later and the Mariners earned themselves a precious point, after Vedran Janjetović bundled Harry Ascroft’s speculative long-range effort over the line for a goal.
Simply put, Graham Arnold’s men capitulated as their nightmare season plummeted to a new low.
Here are some of the best reactions from Twitter:
Not just janjetovic fault whole team devoid of conviction despite having such a great squad #CCMvSYD
— Zenon Caravella (@caravella_fa) March 19, 2016
Wow, Sydney FC are truly in shambles right now. Terrible to let that slip when they were up 2 goals wth less than 5 to go. #CCMvSYD
— Austin Skilton (@austinskilton) March 19, 2016
Excellent result for a Jets fan. Cheered the Coasties like one of our own during final five minutes. Sydney AWFUL. Arnold gone. #CCMvSYD
— Justin (@lyonjust) March 19, 2016
How the hell did we get a result out of that? We were rubbish #CCMvSYD
— Alexander (@AJVegas7) March 19, 2016
Some of the worst goalkeeping I’ve ever seen from Janjetovic, costing 2 points which could effectively see Sydney miss the finals #CCMvSYD
— Ben Quagliata (@badboyskip) March 19, 2016
Saving our strength for the ACL, of course. #CCMvSYD
— Matthew Greenlaw (@MatthewRT) March 19, 2016
Massive from the Mariners. Surely the end for Sydney’s campaign now #CCMvSYD
— Eamonn (@eamonnwarner) March 19, 2016
Mariners end a 388 minute goal drought with 2 goals in 4 minutes.
So Mariners. #CCMvSYD
— Nathan Brookes (@nathan_brookes) March 19, 2016
Speechless….how on earth do you manage to throw that win away?? ?? #CCMvSYD
— Florian Scheuermann (@Flo_aus_Hamburg) March 19, 2016
How embarrassing for Sydney FC. But seriously what are the Mariners celebrating? #CCMvSYD
— Brendan Da Costa (@BrendanDaCosta) March 19, 2016
#CCMvSYD @CCMariners @SydneyFC what happen? pic.twitter.com/IAFCKLn4R0
— Expand the A-League (@ExpandALeague) March 19, 2016
Mariners with perfectly good goal ruled out, poor offside call, but ccm very poor again from them. No pride #CCMvSYD
— Tom McDonald (@thomasjmcd) March 19, 2016
See what happens when you play the whole game with 11 players on the field. #CCMvSYD
— Paul Morgan (@moggy18111962) March 19, 2016
Well, if there's anyone that can let a 2-0 lead slip it's Arnie #CCMvSYD
— Cameron Smith (@camsmithOTLS) March 19, 2016
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