The Central Coast Mariners head to Adelaide confident they can make it back-to-back wins over the Reds, and temporarily at least, move to within just a point of the top of the Hyundai A-League ladder.
The Central Coast Mariners head to Adelaide confident they can make it back-to-back wins over the Reds, and temporarily at least, move to within just a point of the top of the Hyundai A-League ladder.
The Mariners head into Friday-s showdown with the Reds at Hindmarsh Stadium fresh from a 2-1 victory over Perth Glory, but know that victory a week ago would count for nothing, should they not back it up with another three points.
“It-s an important game for us, and it-s a hard place to go,” said Mariners Football Manager Lawrie McKinna.
“We haven-t won that many games down there, so we can-t take anything easily, we have to go down there and build on what we started last week. It was good defensively again, and we played some good touches of football,” said McKinna.
With two wins and two draws already in the bank after five rounds, the Central Coast are sitting just behind Gold Coast United and Sydney in third place, whilst Adelaide United are second from bottom, having recorded one victory and two draws, the most recent of which came last Friday in Wellington, where they drew 1-all with the Phoenix.
“For their standards, they-ve been unlucky in a couple of games, but they-ll be up for it. They are playing at home and always get great support, it-s a great atmosphere at Hindmarsh, it-s a great football stadium, and nothing will be easy on Friday night.
“We started slow at the weekend but we set up that way because we knew Perth would come at us quick, and we-re expecting the same from Adelaide. They-re at home, they need a win, and I-m sure Viddie will have them champing at the bit to come at us straight away, so we need to make sure we don-t concede early like the Brisbane game, and build on that (last Friday-s win over Perth) performance,” McKinna said.
Central Coast striker Matt Simon will notch 50 Hyundai A-League appearances should he play a part in Friday-s clash, and Dean Heffernan returns to the squad after missing last week-s win with a leg problem.
On the flip side though, one of the side-s stars through the opening five rounds in Michael McGlinchey will be absent, after playing the first 45 minutes of New Zealand-s 3-1 friendly win over Jordan in Amman early this morning, while fellow new signing Chris Doig also remains sidelined with a calf injury.
“He-s probably not quite there, he-s trained with us fully for the first time and while he-ll not be considered for the first team, he-s an outside shot of us maybe having a look at him for the youth team, but definitely looking at him for the week after.
“Michael McGlinchey is away with the New Zealand national team and will not be back for this game, so we-ll look at a few options as to who will come in on the right side of midfield, and we-ll just push (Nicky) Travis a wee bit further forward, he came in and did very well last week for his first start,” said McKinna.
The new National Youth League season will provide a curtain raiser to the Mariners- Round six Hyundai A-League clash, when the Central Coast and Adelaide youth clash at 4:45pm ACST.
With competition in the first-team so fierce, it means McKinna has the luxury of being able to give fringe first-team players the chance to shine in a competitive environment.
“It-s great. Matthew Lewis, David D-Apuzzo and Andrew Redmayne will all get games this week, Wolry Wolfe will get a game down there this week, so it-s great for us that it has come around now because it benefits the first grade players and we-re down there watching week in week out, so when a short term injury replacement comes about, some of these boys will be stepping up,” said McKinna.
*Head-to-Head: Played 13: Adelaide United wins 5, Central Coast Mariners wins 5, Drawn 3
Friday, 11 September 2009
Adelaide United v Central Coast Mariners
Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide
Local kick-of: 7.30pm (8.00pm AEST)
Adelaide United Squad: 1.Eugene GALEKOVIC (gk), 3.ALEMAO, 4.Iain FYFE, 5.Daniel MULLEN, 6.CASSIO, 7.Lucas PANTELIS, 9.CRISTIANO, 10.Adam HUGHES, 11.Lloyd OWUSU, 12.Paul REID, 13.Travis DODD (c), 14.Scott JAMIESON, 15.Francesco MONTEROSSO, 16.Inseob SHIN, 17.Michael MARRONE, 20.Mark BIRIGHITTI (gk), 21.Mark RUDAN
*two to be omitted*
In: CASSIO (returns from injury), Travis DODD (returns from injury)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Robert CORNTHWAITE (suspended – 1 week), Kristian SARKIES (calf – indefinite), Fabian BARBIERO (calf – 1 week)
Central Coast Mariners squad: 1. Andrew REDMAYNE (gk), 4. Pedj BOJIC, 5. Brad PORTER, 7. John HUTCHINSON, 8. Dean HEFFERNAN, 9. Nik MRDJA, 11. Dylan MACALLISTER, 15. Andrew CLARK, 16. Nigel BOOGAARD, 18. Alex WILKINSON (c), 19. Matt SIMON, 20. Danny VUKOVIC (gk), 21. Ahmad ELRICH, 22. Nicky TRAVIS, 23. Adam KWASNIK.
In: Dean HEFFERNAN (Return from injury)
Out: Michael MCGLINCHEY (International Duty)
Unavailable: Shane HUKE (Knee – 5 weeks), Chris DOIG (Calf – 2 weeks)
Referee: Strebre Delovski
The Mariners next home match of the Hyundai A-League 2009/10 season will be against Gold Coast United on Saturday, 19 September. Kick-off is at 7:30pm. Tickets for this match are available online here or by phoning 132 849.
Mariners Memberships for the Hyundai A-League 2009/10 season are now available online by clicking here or by phoning 1300 767 442.
