The Central Coast Mariners are in the Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final after a glorious 2-0 win at home in Gosford in front of a record crowd of local football fans on Saturday night, May 20.
The win in the second semi-final against Adelaide gives the Mariners a 4-1 win on aggregate after defeating Adelaide in Adelaide last weekend.
This will be the Central Coast team’s 5th A-league Grand Final appearance in the club’s history, a fact not lost on the thousands of loyal supporters who have followed the club since day one.
Local supporter Erin Morrow said in a tweet: “One of the greatest nights in Mariners history at Industree Group Stadium. So proud of the lads, this club and the 20059 Coasties who attended”.
The win also is a testament to the club’s new owner Richard Peil and the culture he has nurtured since taking the majority ownership of the struggling outfit a year ago.
Peil backed the transition of former Mariners captain Nick Montgomery to the lead coaching position.
Montgomery was characteristically circumspect about the win, reminding commentators it was a result of the 193 training sessions the team had done to this point.
“We had a vision that we could get to the grand final and believed we could challenge everybody in the league,” he said.
“We had people writing us off and we even sold some of our best players; it’s normal and is what this club is about.
“I think we’ve proved that it doesn’t matter what happens, we want the club to be sustainable [and] we want the fan base to grow.”
The fan base has certainly responded to the winning culture of the team.
A record home crowd of over 20,000 people attended the home semi-final game giving all those associated with football a warm feeling for a code that is often ignored by the mainstream media.
The Mariners will now play Melbourne City on June 3 at ComBank Stadium following City’s 4-0 defeat of Sydney FC at AAMI Stadium.
The last time the Mariners were in the grand final was in 2013 when they beat Western Sydney Wanderers, 2 – 0 at Sydney Football Stadium.
The A-League Mens Grand Final will be held in Sydney following the league’s controversial decision to stage the finals in Sydney for five years following a commercial deal done with the NSW Government.
For a full blow-by-blow match report see the Central Coast Mariners website.
David Abrahams
THIS YOUNG TEAM has surpassed every expectation that we all had of them .Under the guidence of MONTGOMEREY THEY HAVE BECOME A FORCE to deal with even though a lot of decisions did.nt go their way in a lot of games they showed us what they are made of. Cummings and Tulio have paved the way for a magnificent season and the best is yet to come on Grand final Day,Go MARINERS.