Central Coast Mariners 0 Western Sydney Wanderers 2 (Santalab 66’ & Nichols 92’)
The Run Down
Goals to Brendon Santalab and Mitch Nichols have sealed all three points for the Wanderers at Central Coast Stadium. There were enough chances for the Yellow & Navy to fire home but the last touch was just off target.
Full focus now shifts to a quick turnaround that will see the Central Coast Mariners back at home on Thursday evening against Melbourne City FC.
The home side had several chances to find themselves on the scoresheet through out the 90 minutes, including a flurry of attempts on goal in the final moments of play but Redmayne stood strong to hold the spoils for Western Sydney.
Mitch Austin will be gunning for fitness to be included on Thursday night and skipper Nick Montgomery misses out through suspension, receiving his fifth yellow card of the season.
Goals
66’ SANTALAB GOAL: It was the substitute, Santalab who broke the dead lock. Nichols played a precision ball through the middle to Santalab who finished off the one-on-one opportunity.
92’ NICHOLS GOAL: It was all guns blazing for the Central Coast Mariners in the final minutes of play, Nichols took advantage and slotted home from close range.
Key Moments
11’ CASTELEN REBOUND: The Wanderers’ Romeo Castelen looked to kick proceedings off for the red and black from just inside the box, his shot pounded into the upright and straight back into the chest of Paul Izzo.
21’ ROSEY RUN: A quick set piece taken by Anthony Caceres saw the number 10 whip a diagonal long ball that hit the chest of the charging left winger. After taking a superb touch, Rose beat his man and landed a precision cross on the feet of Roy O’Donovan who was shut down by a charging Andrew Redmayne.
40’ CACERES CRACK: With just five minutes remaining in the first half, Anthony Caceres pulled the trigger from just outside the box. On target, his shot found the gloves of the former Mariner shot-stopper.
48’ ROSE SHOOTS: Caceres was again the creator, his precise ball down the left found the feet of Monty, the skipper crossed to Josh Rose who hit first time but his effort failed to trouble an in position Redmayne.
54’ ROUX RUN: Storm Roux looked lively down the right for most of the match, on this occasion he broke free of his defender to deliver a cross, the cross just glanced across the face of goal but unfortunately there was no one to poke home.
71’ SIM CROSS: Within a minute of coming onto the pitch, super sub Matty Sim broke free down the right, his cross made its way in behind the back four that was just out of O’Donovan’s reach.
89’ O’DONOVAN STOPPED: The Irishman came so close to bagging an equaliser in the final minute of regular time, but again it was Redmayne who went down well with a strong arm to deny the former Sunderland hitman.
Walmsley’s Words
“We played right on the edge in the first half, we took a calculated gamble, we thought that with four up front that we would create problems, we got a couple of shots in, a couple of promising attacks down the flanks.”
“But we weren’t playing well enough, we didn’t move the ball quick enough, end product wasn’t there.
“We achieved what we set out to do, which was to be in the game at half-time playing virtually man for man at the back, four up front, we knew we’d come home strong, we created chances in the second half, we played better.”
“It wasn’t really until the 75th minute I looked at the clock, we started zipping the ball around at a great tempo, we need that earlier in the game if we are going to capitalise on playing such a bold way.”
“Conceding that first goal really hurt us, it was a soft goal, it was an easy goal to give away. So, disappointing to concede that way but apart from that, they’re the things young players will learn from and I take a lot of positives out of the second half, we could’ve pulled us level at least.”
“Those defenders are playing right on the edge of their games, so they’re learning. Every time they go into a situation, they’ve got to make decisions, they’ve got to be physically strong, and they’ve got to technically get it right.”
“There’s no pressure on the players other than the same pressure that is on them every time they go out to play. They’re in the public eye and being asked to do something a little bit extraordinary in terms of being bold, engage early, dominate your 1v1 situation.”
“We can’t start games slowly in the A-League and only play for half a game and expect to get the right results. We’ve got to be able to do what we did in the second half for 90 minutes and when we grasp that positive mentality for the whole game, we’re going to be hard to stop.
“Luckily we’ve got Mickey Neill who came back today, he’s a good athlete, he’s physically capable of going with Castelen, but he’s a good player from a very good league in Europe and we’re always going to be tested by players of that calibre.
“Mitch Nichols is their go to man, he’s their 10, he makes good forward runs, he gets into pockets as well and we only play with two midfielders so tactically in the first half we took a gamble and the two centre-backs, Poscoliero and McGing worked incredibly hard to cover each other, one of them stepping in to deal with Mitch, the other one staying up top and they had their hands full and I was so proud of them at half-time. I said ‘guys you have been asked to do something and you’ve done incredibly well,’ so to come in nil-nil was unbelievable, we needed more quality going forward, I think in the shots we had, we were hitting the keeper and not the bottom corner. We start hitting the bottom corner, we’ll start scoring more goals.”
“Austin will be back Thursday, obviously we lose Monty now, I think he’s suspended so Harry Ascroft’s fit and able to come in there and play a holding role. Liam Rose obviously came off the bench and could make a start, so we’re stretched a little bit, short turnaround, we’re a fit side, we’ll see how people recover, we obviously have a very light three days leading into Melbourne City so we’ll go round again.
“(Fabio) is getting stronger everyday, it was a bad tear, it was worse than we thought so with Fab, we’re just making sure we don’t rush him back, if we rush him back he’ll get a repeat so I’d say Thursday’s definitely too soon, but then we’ve got Perth away after that so he could be good for that.”
Central Coast Mariners: Central Coast Mariners squad: 1.Paul IZZO (gk), 2.Storm ROUX, 3.Josh ROSE, 4.Jacob POSCOLIERO, 8.Nick MONTGOMERY (c), 9.Roy O’DONOVAN, 10.Anthony CACERES, 11.Nick FITZGERALD, 14.Daniel HEFFERNAN (16.Liam ROSE 62’), 21.Michael NEILL (15.Matthew SIM 70’), 22.Jake McGING (19.Josh BINGHAM 86’)
Unused substitutions: 40.Tom HEWARD-BELLE, 5.Harry ASCROFT
Yellow Cards: Montgomery 71’
Western Sydney Wanderers: Western Sydney Wanderers FC squad: 3.Scott JAMIESON, 4.Nikolai TOPOR-STANLEY (c), 6.Mitch NICHOLS, 7.Romeo CASTELEN (34. Mario SHABOW 82’), 8.DIMAS (21.Jacob PEPPER, 74’), 10.Dario VIDOSIC (11.Brendon SANTALAB 57’), 12.Scott NEVILLE, 16.Jaushua SOTIRIO, 17.ALBERTO, 18.ANDREU, 20.Andrew REDMAYNE (gk),
Unused Subs: 1.Dean BOUZANIS (GK), 22.Jonathan ASPROPOTAMITIS
Yellow Cards: Topor-Stanley 77’
Sunday 29 November 2015
Central Coast Mariners 0
Western Sydney Wanderers 2
Venue: Central Coast Stadium
Attendance: 10 519
Referee: Alan Milliner
