Central Coast Mariners boss Phil Moss is adamant his players possess the quality, pride and commitment needed to get the Club’s Hyundai A-League 2013/14 season back on track following the yellow and navy’s fourth successive domestic defeat on Friday.
Central Coast Mariners boss Phil Moss is adamant his players possess the quality, pride and commitment needed to get the Club-s Hyundai A-League 2013/14 season back on track following the yellow and navy-s fourth successive domestic defeat on Friday.
The Mariners started their round 20 clash against Wellington Phoenix brightly, dominating the first 45 and taking a deserved 1-0 lead to the sheds at half time following Bernie Ibini-s well-taken 20th minute goal.
But Central Coast were humbled by Ernie Merrick-s men in the second stanza, conceding an unprecedented four goals after the break to fall 4-1 against the side from the land of the long white cloud.
Wellington-s win was secured via goals to Costa Rican pair Kenny Cunningham and Carlos Hernandez, Belgian Stein Huysegems, and New Zealand international Jeremy Brockie.
Phoenix custodian Glen Moss produced a penalty save from former Socceroo Mile Sterjovski in the 54th minute, which prevented the Mariners from taking a 2-1 lead.
Following the game Phil Moss told media that the Club was “hurting” following the home humbling, but detailed that his belief in his players and staff remains steadfast.
“There-s so much quality and so much pride in the dressing room, and they are in there hurting at the moment,” Moss said. “It’s like a morgue in that dressing room.”
“How do we bounce back? We work hard. We have to bounce back and have to do it quickly.
“Certainly I know I-ve got the quality of players, I know I-ve got the culture here, and I know we-ve got a very tight dressing room.
“It-s up to everyone to dig deeper, fight harder, roll the sleeves up and make sure that we turn things around,” he said.
Despite having several players unavailable for the match against the ‘Nix due to injury or suspension, Moss made no excuses for the loss, nor its nature.
Instead, the former Manly United mentor was open and matter of fact with what went wrong against Wellington, and said his side simply must be better if it is to achieve its first season goal of reaching the Hyundai A-League 2014 Finals Series.
“I am not going to hide from the fact that it wasn-t good enough from us,” he said. “We have to be better individually, collectively, and we can-t drop our bundle when we concede a goal.”
“At the moment we-re the masters of our own undoing. We-re giving away cheap ball, defending the edge of our box poorly, and there-s just not enough desperation – there was not enough purpose with the ball in the second half.”
“We have to set ourselves high standards and come up to them. Every day we lace the boots on at training, every day we lace the boots on in games we have to be better.”
“I-ll always look for positives, I-ll always be positive, but behind those (dressing room) walls I-ll be letting our players know that that is not good enough in the second half.”
Central Coast Mariners are currently stationed in Sydney and will depart Australia bound for Korea Republic on Saturday ahead of the Club-s 2014 AFC Champions League matchday 1 meeting with FC Seoul on Tuesday.
Moss said the trip to Korea may well have come at a good time for his men.
“The trip to Korea this week is probably good timing in that we can get away from Australia and we can get into a camp situation all week which allows us to spend a lot more time on the video (analysis),” he said.
The Mariners will travel with 18 players to Korea Republic, with defender Eddy Bosnar and attacker Mile Sterjovski remaining in Australia due to the slight back soreness respectively. Moss doesn-t wish to take any risks with the key duo with so much important football still ahead of the Club this campaign.
Central Coast Mariners Squad vs. FC Seoul: 1. Justin PASFIELD (Gk), 3. Joshua ROSE, 4. Marcel SEIP, 5. Zachary ANDERSON, 6. Brent GRIFFITHS, 7. John HUTCHINSON (C), 8. Nick MONTGOMERY, 9. Mitchell DUKE, 11. Nick FITZGERALD, 12. Liam REDDY (Gk), 15. Storm ROUX, 17. Anthony CACERES, 19. Matt SIMON, 20. Bernie IBINI, 22. Tom SLATER, 26. KIM Seung-yong, 28. Glen TRIFIRO, 29. Matt SIM
2014 AFC Champions League Matchday 1 (Group F) – FC Seoul vs. Central Coast Mariners FC
Tuesday 25 February 2014
Seoul World Cup Stadium, Seoul, Korea Republic
Kick-off: 7:30pm (local); 9:30pm (AEST)
TV: Live on FOX SPORTS
Twitter: Join the match conversation on Twitter! #FCSvCCM
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Central Coast Mariners FC 1 (Ibini 20-)
Wellington Phoenix FC 4 (Cunningham 47-, Hernandez 63-, Huysegems 64-, Brockie 81-)
Central Coast Stadium, Gosford
Central Coast Mariners FC: 12. Liam REDDY (Gk), 5. Zachary ANDERSON, 7. John HUTCHINSON (C), 8. Nick MONTGOMERY (28. Glen TRIFIRO 86-), 9. Mitchell DUKE, 15. Storm ROUX, 20. Bernie IBINI (22. Tom SLATER 86-), 21. Mile STERJOVSKI, 25. Eddy BOSNAR, 26. KIM Seung-yong (17. Anthony CACERES 71), 29. Matt SIM
Substitute not used: 1. Justin PASFIELD (Gk), 4. Marcel SEIP
Yellow cards: Ibini, Sim, Anderson
Red cards: Nil
Wellington Phoenix FC: 1. Glen MOSS (Gk), 2. Emmanuel MUSCAT, 3. Reece CAIRA, 5. Michael BOXALL, 9. Kenny CUNNINGHAM (23. Matthew RIDENTON 78-), 10. Stein HUYSEGEMS, 12. Tyler BOYD (24. Roy KRISHNA 87-), 17. Vince LIA, 18. Ben SIGMUND, 21. Carlos HERNANDEZ (11. Jeremy BROCKIE 78-), 22. Andrew DURANTE
Substitutes not used: 6. Joshua BRINDELL-SOUTH, 20. Lewis ITALIANO (Gk)
Yellow cards: Cunningham
Red cards: Nil
Referee: Alan Milliner
