Mariners Achieve Moral Victory In Stunning Draw
Sun Herald
Sunday November 2, 2008
Sydney FC 3
Central Coast 3CENTRAL Coast Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna says his side was disappointed not to have steamrolled their hosts and claimed full points after launching a remarkable three-goal comeback to prevent Sydney FC from taking top spot in the A-League.The Mariners appeared to be out of the contest with 30 minutes to go, fallen victim to a trio of top-class goals. But a double to Olyroos striker Matt Simon, interjected by a goal to potent forward Nik Mrdja, stunned the 18,251 fans and in the space of 17 minutes stole two competition points from a red-faced Sydney FC."We gave it away," Sydney coach John Kosmina said. "You can't lead the Central Coast Mariners 3-0 and toss that lead away. We should have killed them off. Simple as that. We were a bit naive at the back and you can make allowance for that, I suppose, because they put us under the pump and we probably got a little bit rattled. "Having said that, we were still in a good position even at 3-1. We just needed to tighten things up. But we made it difficult. We got pulled out of shape, we had people trying to play things that weren't on."Sydney led 2-0 at half-time through first-half goals by Mark Bridge and Adam Casey. The first came in the 28th minute when Bridge received the ball from wide on the left wing, dribbled in towards the left side of the box and clobbered a dipping shot towards the far post, out of the reach of goalkeeper Danny Vukovic.Casey, who signed a two-year deal last week, gave his employer a generous thank you gift on 34 minutes with a similar goal to Bridge's. Casey received the ball wide on the right wing, cut inside, got into a shooting position around the edge of the box and let rip to the far post.Sydney made it three in the 57th minute when Terry McFlynn - snubbed by Northern Ireland - thumped a 20-metre shot into the left side of the goal. Some confident interplay as they worked their was upfield was finished off brilliantly by McFlynn, who moments earlier had saved Sydney by heading a Mariners chance off the goal line.Stuart Musialik had a chance to make it 4-0, but his point-blank shot hit the underside of the crossbar. The miss would come back to haunt the hosts.Central Coast scored first through Simon in the 63rd minute. The sniff became a stench when replacement Mrdja slipped a ball past goalkeeper Ivan Necevski in the 77th minute to make it 2-3. And the Mariners evened the score through Simon in the 80th minute - a goal that Kosmina believes should have been disallowed because of an alleged foul on the goalkeeper."He was already taken out before the ball was in the box," Kosmina said. "Some weeks the referee sees them, some weeks they don't."The points were shared, but the Mariners were happier. McKinna said they'd been devastated to fall 2-0 down."They made two good chances and scored both of them," McKinna said. "We felt hard done by but we felt that if we got a goal we'd be back in it. We had chance after chance but when Matty got the first one, we felt we could do it. We're probably a wee bit disappointed we didn't get the winner."The win echoed the three-goal second-half comeback the Mariners staged against Adelaide in round 7."The boys believe in each other and I believe in the boys," McKinna said. "When you create so many chances, goals have to come. We knew one would eventually come. Credit to the way we came back."A 32-minute head clash between the Mariners' Pedj Bojic and Sydney's Beau Busch exemplified a tough contest. Both returned to the field wearing head bandages.Kosmina said the result should make his players angry. "We had enough chances to win that game by six or seven," he said. "We made many good chances. We played good, creative football. We just didn't make the most of it."You've got to get on with it. You get over it. It should have a positive effect - it should make people angry and hungry not to do it again."
© 2008 Sun Herald