The Central Coast Mariners secured a thrilling 3-2 win against Perth Glory in an end-to-end contest in Gosford.
Central Coast took an early lead through a fortunate goal to Roy O’Donovan, but the Glory were able to hit back through Richard Garcia to go into the break level. The Mariners were by far the better team in the second-half, and went 3-1 up after Fabio Ferreira converted two penalties midway through. Perth did grab a consolation goal in stoppage time from Grygory Sandor, but in the end it was a deserved win for the Mariners.
Attack is the way for Central Coast
Tony Walmsley made a promise to produce entertaining, attacking football ahead of the new season and followed through with his team selection and tactics. Instead of the experienced Eddy Bosnar, the head coach selected youngster Jake McGing for his A-League debut in central-defence, a ball-playing defender with impressive speed. Nick Fitzgerald and Anthony Caceres formed an exciting creative unit in central-midfield, while wingers Fabio Ferreira and Mitch Austin were always ably supported by the overlapping runs of Storm Roux and Michael Neill.
The approach did leave the defence a little vulnerable at times, but often enough the quick reactions of Poscoliero, McGing and Reddy averted the danger. The Mariners swarmed the Glory defence with numbers at times and if they had a better conversion rate they might have scored quite a few more.
Keogh a hard act to follow
The Glory lost Keogh, last season’s top scorer, after their salary cap scandal and Kenny Lowe brought in Guyon Fernandez and Diego Castro to fill the void left by the Irishman. However, with only one appearance in pre-season under their belts, neither player looked fully comfortable on the field, with flashes of brilliance quickly lost among moments of inconsistency.
Diego Castro made a promising start to the second-half, but quickly disappeared from the contest as the Mariners took control of the contest. Guyon Fernandez did score a goal wrongly ruled out for offside early on, but his most noteworthy contribution of the second half was giving away the first penalty.
Click NEXT for more talking points and Outside90’s player of the year votes.
