Central Coast Mariners coach Paul Okon believes his side is improving with each day that passes in the lead up to the new season.
The Mariners will travel to New Zealand for their last preseason match against an A-League team in the form of the Wellington Phoenix.
Appearing before the media earlier today, the 44-year-old says that watching the players adopt his style and tactics is a higher priority than leaving with the victory.
“I want to win anything I play in,” said Okon.
“The result is important, we want to have a winning mentality and a winning culture…that doesn’t just start in round one, you want to see that throughout the whole preseason.
“We certainly want to see what we’re working on [in training] happening in a game, that’s probably our main focus.”
Saturday’s meeting will see the Mariners seeking some revenge for a 1-0 defeat over the past weekend in Gosford. Despite the scoreline, Okon was happy with the way his team’s attitude and their control of the contest.
“[We’re] happy with what we did when he had the ball. We used it quite well and dominated Wellington,” said the coach.
“We probably didn’t have that cutting edge in the front-third, but that’s certainly an area we expected to have to do a lot of work on.
“We were hungry, we had plenty of energy and our goalkeeper was rarely tested…so all in all a good day for us.”
Now just shy of a month into his tenure as Mariners coach, the former Socceroo has firm targets in mind for the 2016-17 campaign.
“I’m enjoying the challenge, everyday coming in here working with the players…trying to improve the football team, trying to get them to the level that I want my football team to be playing,” said Okon.
“We want to win football games…that’s the icing on the cake.”
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