The Central Coast Mariners have brought the city of Gosford to life on a Thursday night with an emphatic 2-0 win over Perth Glory thanks to goals by Harry Ascroft and Roy O’Donovan.
Central Coast Mariners 2 (Ascroft 30’ & O’Donovan 63’) def. Perth Glory 0
The Run Down
A clean sheet and three points creates huge momentum going into the Yellow & Navy’s second consecutive home game next Saturday against the Western Sydney Wanderers.
Connor Pain was again incredible on the left wing and won his third Fox Sports man of the match award of the season in front of the vocal and passionate supporters at Central Coast Stadium.
It was the first time in over a month that the Mariners had played at Central Coast Stadium and the home team treated the 5296 fans in attendance to an entertaining game, with a goal each side of the break.
The Mariners dominated the first half and had a flurry of chances that could have seen them go more than a goal up before the break.
But it was the unlikely centre back in Harry Ascroft who opened the scoring in Gosford from a Nick Montgomery corner that was buried past Liam Reddy from close range.
Perth Glory came out in the second half a much stronger side but our Irish striker, Roy O’Donovan calmly finished a Nick Montgomery assist to put the result beyond Perth Glory.
Heading towards the full time whistle both teams had several chances to score but the Mariners would hold onto their invaluable clean sheet in front of the Central Coast faithful.
Full attention now turns to next Saturday where the Central Coast Mariners will return to Central Coast Stadium to host the Western Sydney Wanderers. Kick-off is 5:35pm.
Goals
30’ ASCROFT GOAL: The Mariners held majority of the possession in the opening stages and they seemed certain to score. It was Ascroft who moved up from centre back for a set piece to finish from close range to set the stadium alight.
63’ O’DONOVAN GOAL: It was the Irishman who doubled the Mariners lead twenty minutes into the second stanza thanks to a miscued strike by Nick Montgomery. O’Donovan was in the right place at the right time and calmly finished passed Reddy to seal three points at home.
Paolo in the press
“We knew with a short turnaround we needed to find some energy, we bought some boys in who we thought would give us that energy and two young boys who run and have no fear, and fortunately for us they can play football,” Okon said. I’m happy with that decision, we knew that the energy would be high, Perth had two days more than us to prepare and we slept in our own bed last night and they had a travel so we wanted to keep the intensity up and be the first team that scored and we did that.
“For a period in the second half they were slowly getting on top and you start to second guess yourself a bit and your decisions aren’t what they were in the first half, and they push you back and I think that second goal came at the right time and we maybe could’ve got another one in the end but I’m delighted with that victory and we are happy with that first clean sheet this season.
“For me, the number 36 doesn’t interest me, it’s from the start of the season and we managed to do it in round eight and if we can continue to or get close to doing that we will compete every game.
“The goal is to be in the top six at the end, when we started out, we spoke to all the players and that’s the goal we set. The ladder position is irrelevant now but if you’re a supporter you want to see your team as high as possible.
“We know what we are capable of, we know where we need to improve but we will enjoy tonight, we’ve got the weekend off and we will be back on Monday to focus on a big game against the Wanderers.
“I see what we’re working on during the week, we’re a good team, I will only speak about what I’ve seen since I’ve been here which is a good football team probably lacking confidence that needed to get some good performances to build that confidence.
“We have two wins now and we just want to continue and win football games.
“We work hard, I think everyone saw tonight the effort the player put into the short turnaround, that’s the minimum, that’s what this club was built on and as long as I’m here that will continue.
Central Coast Mariners: 20.Paul IZZO (gk), 2.Storm ROUX, 3. Scott GALLOWAY (Michael NEILL 79’), 5.Harry ASCROFT, 8. Nick MONTGOMERY(c) (Blake POWELL 69’), 9.Roy O’DONOVAN, 10.Mickael TAVARES, 11.Connor PAIN, 12.Trent BUHAGIAR (7.Fabio FERREIRA 84’) 14.Adam BERRY, 14. 22.Jake McGING
Substitutes not used: 1.Ivan NECEVSKI (gk) & 17.Josh BINGHAM
Perth Glory: 33.Liam REDDY (gk), 2.Alexander GRANT, 4.Shane LOWRY 5.Rhys WILLIAMS, 8.Rostyn GRIFFITHS (c), 9.Andrew KEOGH. 10.Nebojsa MARINKOVIC, 14.Chris HAROLD (7.Joel CHIANESE 79’), 16.Joseph MILLS, 17.Diego CASTRO (Adam TAGGART 15’) , 24.Milan Smiljanic
Substitutes: 13.Nicholas FEELY (gk), 15.Brandon WATSON
Yellow cards: 4.Shane LOWRY 17’, 8.Rostyn, GRIFFITHS 22’, 5.Rhys WILLIAMS, 16.Joseph MILLS 82’
Thursday 24 November, 2016
Central Coast Stadium
Central Coast Mariners vs. Perth Glory
Attendance: 5296
Referee: Shaun Evans
