Central Coast Mariners defender Dan Hall spoke the media this week, looking ahead to our second leg clash with Sydney FC.
Hall followed his right-sided partner Storm Roux, in speaking to a large turnout of journalists at Mariners COE.
READ MORE: “We’re full of confidence” Roux’s rousing pre-Sydney presser
The Mariners take a one-goal lead into the second leg after coming from a goal down to win 2-1 at Allianz Stadium last Friday.
The victory was the first from three games against Sydney this season and now means the Mariners have beaten every team in the A-League this season at least once and Hall puts that feat down to belief and trusting the process.
Hall also said the squad are not thinking too much about the aggregate score and will go out to win the game again in front of a packed out crowd at Industree Group Stadium.
“Obviously any advantage, you take, but the boys are not looking too far into that lead, we want to win it on merit so we’re just going to play the game and hopefully get the result we want.” Hall said.
“Credit to Sydney, they’re a very tough side to play against. We continue to trust the process, we always believe we can beat any team on our day and we showed that last week. Hopefully we show it again on Saturday.”
On a personal level, Hall has enjoyed the best season of his career to date, racking up 23 A-League appearances this season and solidifying his place next to Brian Kaltak at the heart of the best A-League defence this season (12 clean sheets).
The 24-year-old Mariners Academy product ticked over the 50 appearance mark earlier in the campaign and says he is grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this team. He is enjoying the moment but believes he will look back post-career on this as an ‘unbelievable’ campaign.
“Any player that plays regularly, they improve. I’m just grateful for the chance I’ve been given to play a part in this team. Most important is winning games so to do that and play regularly, I’m enjoying every minute of being out there.” Hall said.
When you look back on it post career [it will be unbelievable], but at the moment you just take it as it comes so I’m just trying to not take anything for granted and enjoy every moment as a team and keep getting good results.
Hall has been one of many consistent performers in Jackson’s team this season, playing every single minute in the Isuzu UTE A-League since breaking into the team in November. He’s excited for his well-earned post-season holiday but is not complaining about the amount of football he’s getting to play.
“I’m definitely excited for that holiday but I’m not complaining, playing football is what I always wanted to do. It might be a lot but nobody is complaining, it’s what everyone wanted to do, the team have good vibes, nobody is angry about that.” Hall said.
“As we said as a group, we always said we want to win as much as we can. Obviously it’s gone okay so far and we don’t want to look too far into the future. That treble talk, we don’t want to jinx ourselves. We are just going to continue to trust the process and see where the good results take us.”
“All season our defensive structure has been very solid and that starts from the boys up front. Our press has been good and everyone knows what Jacko and Danny [Schofield] want us to do so I think we’re very well prepared for whatever comes our way on Saturday.”
“I agree there is a bit more of a calmness because we have been here before, but we’ve played so many games that we’re just treating it as another game. We’re not trying to look too far into the occasion, just play the 90 and see what result comes.”
A packed out crowd is expected with only limited tickets remaining, Hall can’t wait to see what will be a special atmosphere.
Crowd involvement is huge and to get the coast around this team is something that we value. We thrive on community engagement so to get this place rocking would be top.
Dan Hall on seeing a sold out Our Paradise this weekend.
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