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Goals from James Jeggo, James Troisi and Kosta Barbarouses ensured the Victory would bounce back after their demoralising 4-0 Melbourne Derby loss at the hands of cross-town rivals the Heart last weekend, but once again a Victory game is marred thanks to some questionable keeping.
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This match was only Thomas’ second appearance of the season after being recalled to the match day squad for last week’s derby after a series of mistakes from regular number one keeper Nathan Coe.
The Victory defence has been topic of strong debate all season with the side being on the wrong end of too many high scores combined with some questionable goal keeping decisions; this latest episode only further highlights the improvement that is needed over the off-season.
Despite the Thomas mishap, the Victory managed to keep the Mariners at bay for the most of the evening.
It was a makeshift squad all over the park as international duties, injuries and suspensions forced home manager Kevin Muscat to move the chess board around and play boys out of their regular position.
Already missing Tom Rogic, Mark Milligan, Nick Ansell and Adrian Leijer coming into the match, the task got tougher for the home side with defender Adama Traore a late withdrawal with a knee concern. It proved not to matter with the Mariners offering very little in attack.
It was a very tame first half with neither side offering much in the final third. Both sides were desperately lacking creativity in the opening stages of the match to ensure it was a first half to forget.
The Victory were particularly lacking in intensity thanks largely to the fact they were without the likes of Rogic, Milligan and Broxham in the midfield to steer the side forward.
Despite struggling to get onto the game, the Victory found the breakthrough in the 31st minute as Jeggo claimed his first goal in almost two years as he got on the end of a Gui Finkler pass to give the home side the lead.
Jeggo has found himself back in starting 11 contention as of late after spending the start of the year in the wilderness under Muscat. The goal more than proved the manager's faith in restoring him into the first team.
The second half looked to follow the same path of the first until Anderson capitalised on Thomas’ mistake to force the Victory out of their slumber.
Their reward came in the 75th minute as the goal scorer Anderson went from hero to villain as he handled an Archie Thompson cross in the penalty box to give the Victory a lifeline from the penalty spot.
The home side's lead was restored from Troisi as his penalty effort made its way into the goal after collecting the inside of the crossbar.
The Mariners were desperate to take something out of this encounter and pushed hard to find another equaliser in the dying stages of the match.
Their best efforts came to nothing as substitute Barbarouses put the exclamation mark on the win with a stoppage time goal.
With Central Coast pushing high for a goal the Victory took full advantage of a counter attack which led Barbarouses to tap into an empty net.
It was important for Muscat to see a reaction from his men after the heavy defeat they copped last week, and that is exactly what he got.
“A lot has been said this week, it’s been a long week considering what happened last week," Muscat said.
“We were still smarting from defeat last week.
“I’ve certainly seen enough in terms of the reaction, I said last week we’ve got to learn from mistakes we make, tonight we learnt.”
It just wouldn’t be a Melbourne Victory game without some kind of defensive error but despite the howler, Muscat backed Thomas after the match.
“People might point to Lawrence for making a mistake for the goal. From my perspective his made a decision to come for a cross, I’m not going to crucify him for that.
“His decision to come for the cross was correct. Then he makes a skill based error. Other players have made skill based errors tonight.”
After seeing his side fall to another defeat, Mariners coach Phil Moss still has faith his side will be there come finals time.
“We can certainly mount a challenge for the finals. I’ve got absolute faith in the quality I’ve got in the dressing room," Moss said.
“No doubt we are one of those in the competition that once we get there we can make some waves.”
Moss also made his opinion very clear on the decisive handball that went against his side.
“These handballs in the box, is it ball to hand or hand to ball, the referee is going to have his interpretation and in the end of the day he has the whistle in his hand. I’m not going to complain about it. I don’t like the rule.”
Three goals and three points aside, this wasn’t the best performance ever seen from a Victory side that often struggled to build tempo throughout the evening with the first half in particular a cause for concern.
The only thing that saved the Victory this evening was that the Mariners were just as poor as what they were.
There is no doubt that the Victory will play much better than they did this evening in other games and fail to win. For a side down on confidence, the result was much better than the performance.
Melbourne Victory: 20. Lawrence THOMAS(GK), 6. Leigh BROXHAM(C), 7. Gui FINKLER, 10. Archie THOMPSON, 11. Connor PAIN, 14. James TROISI, 16. Rashid MAHAZI, 17. James JEGGO, 24. Scott GALLOWAY, 25. Jason GERIA
Subs: 1. Nathan COE(GK), 9. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 22. Jesse MAKAROUNES , 26. Jordan BROWN, 31. Dylan MURNANE
Central Coast Mariners: 12. Liam REDDY(GK), 4. Marcel SEIP, 5. Zach ANDERSON, 6. Brent GRIFFTHS, 7. John HUTCHINSON(C), 9. Mitch DUKE, 11. Nick FITZGERALD, 17. Anthony CACERAS, 20. Bernie IBINI, 26. Kim Seung-yong, 29. Matt SIM
Subs: 1. Justin PASFIELD(GK), 8. Nick MONTGOMERY. 19. Matt SIMON, 21. Mile STERJOVSKI, 28. Glen TRIFIRO