The Central Coast Mariners have pulled off a pivotal 1-2 win in their A-League game against the Brisbane Roar at Kayo Stadium in Brisbane on Friday night.
The local side has stumbled through the last few games despite a robust attacking style of football and a squad brimming full of talent and team commitment.
This win has also restored the Mariners to the second spot on the A-League ladder with 26 points, as is Adelaide United, the Mariners above thanks to their superior goal difference.
The Mariners took the lead in the 18th minute with a scramble in the box after new recruit James McGarry curled a nice corner in, Storm Roux with the second touch who spotted it to Marco Tulio to finish the job.
The Brisbane home side picked up what could be best described as a sympathy penalty when Tulio was deemed to have fouled Carlo Armiento in the box by the ref.
The successful penalty shot made the scores one-all, a scoreline that stayed that way until halftime.
After the break, both sides came out swinging, with chances of the match going either way.
Mariners midfielder Max Ballard almost scored with his shot from the top of the box, blocked by some desperate Brisbane defence.
Then just as the frustration peaked the Mariners were awarded a penalty in the 65th minute when Dan Hall was clipped by Roar’s Scott Neville.
Neville tried to clear the ball, yet clearly connected with Hall’s leg. Another VAR moment extended the decision and was upheld, with Beni Nkololo given the task to take the spot shot.
The lanky Frenchman converted with a trademark cool shot, calmly pushing the penalty over the line into the bottom right corner.
The Mariners’ 1 -2 lead over their hometown rivals gave the game a new energy with 20 minutes of regular time yet to play.
The Roar threw everything into the game, spurred on by the home crowd, while the Mariners team characteristically held their cool composure, starving off all opportunities of equalising.
With seven minutes of extra time awarded the game was not over by any means as the Mariners’ defensive line held strong, notably without their key backstop Brian Kaltak on a one match suspension.
Three hard fought game points eventually went the way of the Central Coast team, making up for recent losses and keeping the smallest team in the ISUZU A-League in contention for a strong tilt at finals football come the end of the regular season.
The Mariners team now head west to play Perth Glory in a late night 10 pm game on Saturday at HBF Park aka Perth Rectangular Stadium.
The next home game at Gosford’s Industree Group Stadium will be against New Zealand’s Wellington Pheonix on Friday, Feb 24 at 7.45 pm.
David Abrahams