Mariners take full points over Sydney

The Central Coast Mariners escaped with a narrow victory over Sydney FC, claiming the 1-0 victory and leaving Sydney without a win in five games.

Although the Mariners deserve to win the game on balance, the Sky Blues can in part feel a little disappointed as the Mariners’ goal was deflected by Matt Jurman off Mile Sterjovski’s powerful shot.

It is hard to see where the season will end up now for the Sky Blues and, in particular, how much the midweek announcement of Brett Emerton’s retirement affected the side on the night is hard to quantify. Emerton was indeed a true legend of Australian football.

It seems a ritual now for Sydney FC to suffer a narrow loss and for coach Frank Farina to lament afterwards that his side didn’t react well after the goal.

The game got off to a cracking pace with both teams having early chances. Referee Peter O’Leary had just blown for kickoff when Alessandro Del Piero put the ball into the middle for Nick Carle who fired into the side netting.

The Mariners replied with two corners before the five-minute mark and both could have been turned in for goals. The first one ended with a Storm Roux shot just wide and the other saw Daniel McBreen’s header knocked away by Corey Gameiro on the goal line but in reality he knew little about this as it bounced off his chest.

Matt Simon was lucky to escape with only a yellow midway through the first stanza of play for a reckless foul on Nikola Petkovic. It was obvious that Mr O’Leary was in a good mood.

Justice prevailed for the Sky Blues because only minutes later Simon sprayed a header wide which seemed harder to miss than to score.

It was on the half hour mark that Ranko Despotovic was adjudged to be offside from a Del Piero through ball as he scored for the home side.

It was even hard to decide with the benefit of the television replays if Despotovic was in the irregular position and clearly a case of allowing the advantage would have been more appropriate.

It was in the second half that the Mariners scored their only goal. In the 58th minute, Mile Sterjovski’s shot was deflected in off Matt Jurman leaving goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic stranded.

Luck certainly played its part and it was clear from Mariners’ coach Phil Moss how much the goal actually meant. He celebrated in his customary eccentric way on the sidelines.

Sydney FC’s new signing Milos Dimitrijevic came on as a second half replacement but in reality he didn’t have much time to show his potential value.

Late in the game another substitute, Bernie Ibini, fired a powerful drive into the side netting. It could have been the Mariners’ second goal.






SYDNEY FC: Janjetovic, Jurman, Bojic, Warren (65’ Chianese), Petkovic, McFlynn, Carle (65’ Dimitrijevic), Abbas, Gameiro, Del Piero, Despotovic.


CENTRAL COAST MARINERS:  Reddy, Sainsbury, Roux, Rose, Anderson, Fitzgerald (74’ Duke), Caceres, Montgomery, Sterjovski (68’ Ibini), McBreen, Simon.