Central Coast Mariners 0 Melbourne Victory 2
A 10-man Central Coast Mariners have fallen to Melbourne Victory with Besart Berisha and Fahid Ben Khalfallah netting at Central Coast Stadium.
The Yellow & Navy were a man down just moments into the second half when Mickey Neill was shown his second yellow card of the evening.
It was the first time this season that the Central Coast Mariners boasted the same back four in consecutive matches and Walmsley’s squad had their work cut out for them with Gui Finkler and Ben Khalfallah fresh in the attacking stocks.
In the front third, it looked to be an all guns blazing formation with Roy O’Donovan, Mitch Austin and Fabio Ferreira starting alongside one another for the first time since New Year’s eve with the added flare of Luis Garcia. Unfortunately the three-pronged attack was broken up on the half an hour mark when Austin subsided due to back complaints.
Coach Tony Warmsley commented “We needed to execute much better in the second half, even down to 10 men you could see that Victory were going and they needed their fresh legs to come on off the bench and help them out,” further adding “It was a tough afternoon, we played too many balls down Delpierre’s throat, he’s the biggest guy on the field and a classy defender. Our pass selection was way off the mark today, if it had of been better I think we could have tamed Victory because with 20 minutes to go they were gone but we didn’t execute well enough,”
Full focus turns to Hyundai A-League round 23 where the Central Coast Mariners face the tough task of taking on Perth Glory away from home.
Game Statistics were as follows:
Goals for Berisha 12’ & Ben Khalfallah 90’. Yellow cards: Neill x 2, Deng, Garcia, J. Rose, O’Donovan, Galloway, Red cards: Neill, Attendance: 5032
Media release and audio interview, Tyson Scott, Central Coast Mariners