A buoyant Dylan Fox believes the Mariners can match up against anyone this season, and that they’ll take that belief into Friday’s meeting with Melbourne City at AAMI Park.
Fox was immense as the Mariners saw off Premiers Perth Glory on Sunday night in the West, helping to anchor a backline that was placed under extreme pressure late in the game.
He paid credit to his teammates for the effort though, praising the second half shut out as a full team effort.
How good was this lung-buster from @RTongyik to seal the game last night? Catch all the action from our @ALeague Round 4 win now. #CCMFC #PERvCCM.
Watch ?https://t.co/vFBK4kwG24
?️ @FOXFOOTBALL pic.twitter.com/EU3qVQbJ5S— Central Coast Mariners (@CCMariners) November 3, 2019
“As a defender there’s no better feeling, the whole team was getting back and defending,” he said.
“It wasn’t just the backline, it was the midfielders and forwards, it was a complete team effort that stopped Perth scoring in the second half.”
“There’s no better feeling than holding out and getting a result at the end, so really proud of the defensive effort at the end there.”
Fox made eight clearances, with defensive partner Kye Rowles making five as well, and won 60% of his duels on the night as the Mariners held out against what Alen Stajcic described as one of the best forward groups in the league.
“We knew what Perth were going to bring to the table, we had worked on that for the last two weeks.”
“We knew they had a good attacking threat, but we had nothing to lose going to Perth, and we really have a point to prove this season.”
“We’ve been feeling good and confident and the first two games with the way we played we should’ve got results.
“But I feel like we definitely deserved this one and we need to make sure we back it up on Friday.”
“To do it against the Premiers was an even better feeling.”
“All the group believes we can beat any team on any day, but again it’s just one win and we need to back it up on Friday and that’s the main thing.”
“We’ve got that belief now that we can do it, those first two games were an indication but we’ve proved to ourselves now we can do it.
“We don’t worry too much about where teams are on the table, we know we can match every team and we’ve proven that now.”
The Mariners will head into Friday’s clash winless in their past 17 games in Victoria, but given the numbers they overcame against Perth it is unlikely to phase Alen Stajcic’s side who will head to Melbourne from Perth during the week.
