Central Coast Mariners went down 3-1 in their semi-final away to Adelaide United on Sunday, to crash out of the A-League finals.
In a statement on social media, the club tweeted: “It hurts, but we are proud of what this group achieved. Written off by everyone at the start of the season, and again, we prove them wrong! We won’t back down.”
Both teams went into the elimination final in good form, coming off five wins in a row.
Adelaide United went on the attack from the outset, spurred on by a packed Coopers Stadium, and the home team was first to score through Craig Goodwin in the 25th minute.
A true finals football battle ensued. The boys in yellow seemed starstruck by the intensity of the match at times, but defended with a consistency that has become their hallmark this season to go into half-time 1-0 down.
The young Mariners side came out of the tunnel pumped, winning an opportunity when Jason Cummings was downed just outside the box. Beni Nkololo’s free-kick beat the wall but didn’t trouble Gauci in Adelaide’s goal.
Then Cummings put the ball in the back of the net after a brilliant run from Max Ballard, only for VAR to rule it offside.
In the 66th minute, Adelaide cut through the Mariners on the counterattack to go 2-0 up. The crowd went wild in a way you normally only see in Europe or South America.
To their credit, the Mariners got back on the horse and started pushing, after a surprise triple substitution by head coach Nick Montgomery, with Marco Urena, Harrison Steele and Lewis Miller interchanged for Nico Muller, Josh Nisbet and Storm Rue.
The changes were rewarded when Ballard turned in the box, punting the ball to Rue, who tapped it in for a sweet goal, and it was game on.
In the 82nd minute Jacob Farrell almost got on the scoresheet after N’kololo made room on the right and cut back to Farrell in the box, but he was blocked by the experienced Adelaide defence.
With six minutes added on, the visitors kept pushing. That risked leaving holes in defence and two minutes into added time the home side scored their third.
The Mariners kept fighting, with a skilful header by Farrell just missing the mark.
Despite the loss, the Mariners can walk tall, having defied the naysayers with their strong finish to the season.
David Abrahams