Mariners robbed of goal, lose 3-0 to Victory

The Mariners were robbed of a goal in the last second of play, making it 3-0 to Melbourne Victory at North Sydney Oval. It’s a disappointing result after all the fuss; there were more than a few tanties and tiffs over turf conditions and abandoned fans, but the Mariners home game at North Sydney Oval kicked off with a bang. 

Literally. A canon went off.

All three goals were suitably victorious, the first coming in the 61^st minute, courtesy of Berisha, the second in the 69^th from Georgievski and the third in the 71^st from Connor Pain.

The Mariner’s goal came in the very last second of play via Nick Fitzgerald, but their time was up, and the goal wasn’t counted.

An undefeated Melbourne Victory set the pace of the game quickly, applying pressure on the Mariners’ defense from the outset.

Archie Thompson was in fine form, sending shot after shot firing at the yellow and navy. He was denied a goal in the 20^th minute, flagged offside. Some quick one-two’s between Thompson and Daniel Georgievski had the Mariners defense on its toes.

Victory must have noticed the Mariners’ usual “pass back” strategy as a way of buying time, because they weren’t giving them an inch.

A goal almost came for the Central Coast in the 25^th minute from Nick Fitzgerald, who was denied by Nathan Coe in a rather physical save.

Matt Simon (welcome back) had a few chances on the offensive but Melbourne Victory’s defense was too good. Likewise, Richard Vernes, who earned his spot in the starting eleven after scoring a goal last weekend against Newcastle, had some good runs and chances up front, but couldn’t put anything away.

“We had plenty of opportunities to shoot tonight and we didn’t, we didn’t pull the trigger so if you don’t shoot you don’t score,” Moss said after the game.

The Mariners’ habitual downfall this season has been conceding a goal before half-time, so to come away from the first forty-five minutes with a clean sheet would have bolstered their confidence.

It certainly seemed that way for the first fifteen minutes of the second half. But alas, it wasn’t to be.

The first goal came flying past Liam Reddy in the 61^st minute, courtesy of Besart Berisha. In Reddy’s defense, perhaps he was slightly concussed, as moments before Zac Anderson had smashed into his head, possibly mistaking it for the ball…

In any case, the Mariners were spurred into action with a well-placed ball from Anthony Caceres finding Vernes right in front of goal in the 62^nd minute. Vernes’s volley skimmed the crossbar by centimeters, and was easily the Mariners’ best chance at a goal in regulation time.

Then the second goal came; a pin-point shot from Georgievski in the 69^th minute went soaring past (the presumably still concussed?) Reddy, and into the top right-hand corner of the goal. Incidentally, this is Georgievski’s first ever A-League goal for the Victory.

Exactly three minutes later, another well placed cross, this time from Kosta Barbarouses, found Conner Pain and pain was invariably unleashed. 3-0. Ouch.

Despite what seemed like a pretty classy performance from Melbourne Victory, coach Kevin Muscat disagreed.

“Our biggest problem in the first half was not retaining the ball long enough…and the conditions, you know, getting used to a cricket pitch instead of a football pitch…as as far as I’m concerned, our football went back 20 years tonight,” he said after the game.

Slightly dramatic, perhaps, but in any case, Moss didn’t blame the pitch for his teams’ result.

Mariners’ fans across Gosford will be wagging smug fingers at Mike Charlsworth and Moss saying “Ha! This is what you get for taking our home games to Sydney!”

On the plus side, the crowd attendance was 7098 (only 500 shy of what the team gets at home).

“Our owner wants to enlarge the footprint of the club, and he’s got every right to tap into the 20% following down here,” Moss said.

The 20% following were sure excited when a Mariners goal finally came, but it was one second too late and Fitzgerald’s tremendous last effort wasn’t counted.

The football gods don’t seem to be smiling down on the Mariners this season, but Moss said his boys haven’t given up.

“There’s nothing wrong with our morale, win or lose or draw…we’ve got good, honest players and so I’ve got no doubt that our luck will change,” he said.

Next week the Mariners take on the Wellington Phoenix, away from "home", wherever that is.

Central Coast Mariners: 2. Storm Roux 3. Joshua Rose 5. Zac Anderson 7. John Hutchinson (C) 8.Nick Montgomery 10. Anthony Caceres 11.Nick Fitzgerald 12. Liam Reddy (GK) 17. Richard Vernes 19. Matthew Simon 21. Michael Neill

Substitutions: 1.Matthew Nash (GK) 9. Mitchell Duke 15. Matthew Sim 18. Glen Trifiro 27. Zac Cairncross

Melbourne Victory: 1. Nathan Coe (GK) 2. Jason Geria 5. Mark Milligan (C) 6. Leigh Broxham 8. Besart Berisha 9. Kosta Barbarouses 10. Archie Thompson 14. Fahid Ben Khalfallah 15. Daniel Georgievski 21. Carl Valeri 23. Adrian Leijer

Substitutions: 4. Nicholas Ansell 11. Connor Pain 16.Rashid Mahazi 20. Lawrence Thomas (GK) 22. Jesse Makarounas