A strong home crowd and the combined attacking force of Trent Buhagiar, Connor Pain and Roy O’Donovan could make “anything possible” in the Central Coast Mariners’ home match against Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday, December 3, according to midfi elder Harry Ascroft.
“They are a very good team,” Ascroft said of the Western Sydney Wanderers, who have been playing well but not managing to get the points in the 2016-17 A-League competition to date. He complimented the Wanderers’ foreign players including Japanese signing Jumpei and midfi elder Emilio Martinez. “Martinez is very good on the ball, so they will be very dangerous,” he said. “The results haven’t gone their way, so they will be looking to change that this weekend, but hopefully we will put on another performance like we did last week, and we will come away with a clean sheet and three points again.”
Commenting on the Central Coast Mariners’ 2 to 0 win at home against Perth Glory on November 24, Ascroft said: “It was very good, a good return, a good 90 minutes personally, and as a team, a great performance, we kept a clean sheet, and of course, the three points is fantastic.” Ascroft and roommate Jake McGing “went viral” when their victory celebration, after Ascroft’s goal in the Glory game, resulted in McGing giving him a “love bite”. “Any publicity is good publicity. “It went pretty viral and it is pretty funny because he is my roommate. “We laugh about it now, so it is all good.
“We know each other really well, we room together, so there is that partnership there, and of course last season we played a lot of games together, and we have only just grown with experience.” The midfi elder had praise for coach Paulo Okon and the style he has been building at the club. “Every game we’ve played, I think we have dominated possession, and I think that is the way he wants to play. “We’ve had multiple entries into the box and we just have to fi nish them more, and get more chances, and I think it is working very well.” Captain Nick Montgomery also earned some positive feedback from Ascroft.
“He is absolutely fantastic, he leads from the front, he is an absolute workhorse, he won’t stop running and he is a pleasure to play with.” In terms of where the Mariners still have work to do, Ascroft said: “We defi nitely need to increase our ball speed and move the ball faster along the pitch, and when we get those chances, we need to be clinical and finish them upfront, and obviously, some more clean sheets would be nice. “Our passing has been on point, we dominate, we like to dominate possession and get chances into the box, and it is clicking, there is still a lot of work to do, but it is going well.
“We’ve got some absolutely fantastic players, Connor has been doing really well, Trent as you know was lightning on the weekend, and Roy is clinical with his fi nishing. “If we get the ball to those three and they come up with what they do, anything is possible.” He said the home crowd at the game against Perth was “amazing”. “The crowd was fantastic and they pushed us through, and thanks to them, and hopefully they will come out in numbers this weekend against the Wanderers. “We will get a big turnout and hopefully we will get the same result,” he said.
Audio recording, Nov 28, 2016 Tyson Scott, Central Coast Mariners