Melbourne City 3 (Kisnorbo 11’, Fornaroli 53’ & 72’) Central Coast Mariners 1 (Fitzgerald 13’)
The Run Down:
Despite a cracking goal to Nick Fitzgerald, the Central Coast Mariners have suffered a defeat at the hands of Melbourne City F.C. courtesy of a Bruno Fornaroli brace and Patrick Kisnorbo header.
Fitzgerald was arguably the best on ground for the Central Coast Mariners who was unlucky not to have several more goals to his name. Fitzy’s strike in the 13th minute brought the Mariners fans to their feet as well as his impressive volley just before halftime that grazed the crossbar.
The Mariners and City played out an entertaining affair at AAMI Park that boasted a total of 36 shots through out the match.
Full focus now turns to Hyundai A-League round 4 where the Central Coast Mariners host Graham Arnold’s Sydney FC at Central Coast Stadium.
GOALS:
11’ KISNORBO GOAL: Melbourne City F.C. kicked off proceedings through inform attacker, Aaron Mooy. Mooy lined up his set piece from just inside the touch line and delivered a dangerous cross that flew off the head of Kisnorbo to gift the home side a 1-0 lead.
13’ FITZGERALD GOAL: WHAT A HIT! Just two minutes later, Fitzgerald took it upon himself to put the Mariners back in the ball game. Fitzy found possession just outside the box and wasted no time pulling the trigger. His shot flew into Sorensen’s bottom corner who had no chance to deny the wonder goal.
53’ FORNAROLI GOAL: David Williams came onto the pitch as a second half substitute and took no time to influence the game. Started by Mooy from half way, Williams broke down the right and crossed into Bruno Fornaroli who tapped home his first of the night from close range.
66′ AUSTIN CROSSBAR: Mitch Austin looked dangerous all night, his chest and volley opportunity rattled the crossbar with pure power.
72’ FORNAROLI GOAL: The Uruguayan scooted in behind the Mariners backline to bag his second goal of the night. Izzo went down fast to make the save but the close range effort managed to find its way across the line.
Key Moments:
3’ CACERES CRACKER: Anthony Caceres looked lively through out the 90 minutes with sharp feet and explosiveness pushing forward. He came close to opening the scoring in the third minute after dancing around several City defenders, hit shot was on target but Sorensen went down to his right to deny our number 10.
15’ IZZO SAVE: Mooy tried his luck from distance with a powerful shot, Izzo made a crucial diving save to deny the Socceroo.
17’ END TO END ACTION: The Central Coast Mariners and Melbourne City played out an entertaining first half that saw multiple chances either end. In the 17th minute Anthony Caceres was dispossessed just inside the box that allowed city to counter and go close through Stefan Zinni at the other end.
34’ MOOY STRIKE: Mooy looked to take the lead for the home side with 10 minutes remaining in the first half, fortunately for the Yellow & Navy his strike flew just over the cross bar.
37’ FITZY FIRES: With a keen taste for goal after his cracking strike in the 13th minute, Fitzgerald looked to go one better as he chested down for a volley that was just centimetres over the crossbar.
64’ O’DONOVAN SHOT: The Irishman linked up well with Storm Roux down the right wing, O’Donovan let fly from the edge of the area but a heavy deflection cancelled out the danger.
66′ AUSTIN CROSSBAR: Mitch Austin looked dangerous all night, his chest and volley opportunity rattled the crossbar with pure power.
79’ IZZO SAVE: The Olyroo was doing everything in his power to keep the Mariners in the hunt, with just over 10 minutes remaining he made another impressive save to deny Gameiro.
87’ O’DONOVAN SHOT: O’Donovan’s never say die attitude was apparent with just moments remaining he shot forward and tried his luck with the outside of his boot, the shot skewed just wide.
87′ FITZY DENIED: Fitzy found the back of the net with just moments remaining but the goal was pulled back by the offside flag with the officials deeming that O’Donovan interfered from an offisde position.
Walmsley’s words:
“We know that we take certain risks playing that style and there will be times that it doesn’t work out and we have to be better.”
“At the end of the day we thought we had an opportunity today against City because of their 3 games in a week and travel to Perth, we thought in the last 20 minutes we would be stronger and quicker but we needed to keep the ball better in the first half in order to do that and move them around a lot more than we did.”
“We were well in the game, we hit the bar and we had one disallowed and I feel the same as you guys, I feel entertained but it didn’t go our way and we move onto the next one.”
“We had 8000 people at home in our first game and the feedback for that was fantastic, we lost 2-1 in Brisbane and the feedback from the locals was fantastic, we’re trying to engage the community with this proactive style.”
“The local fans are buying into us having a real crack so we’re going to persevere with that, we had a very inexperienced backline out there and Fornaroli had a fantastic game.
“At 2-1 we definitely thought we were going to get something, at half time we knew statistically their entries into the penalty area far outweighed ours and it was a stat we needed to turn around and we did that.”
“It’s the third game in a row I think our first half needed to be better and we will work on that.”
“I’m really looking forward to it (match against Sydney FC) Arnie plays a very structured game, he wins games with moments of quality like they did yesterday and it’s going to be fantastic. We’re going to have a big crowd at Gosford, for our players it’s something to really look forward to.”
“Fitzy is close to being the best finisher at the club. He’s two footed, he hits the target a lot and once he gets his confidence up he’s going to contribute more. Fitzy hit three that just sizzled over the bar, had one disallowed as well as an absolute screamer, I couldn’t be more happier for him, he’s a great kid and a great player.”
Central Coast Mariners: 1.Paul IZZO (GK), 2.Storm ROUX, 5.Harry ASCROFT (14.Daniel HEFFERNAN 82’), 6.Mitch AUSTIN (18.Glen TRIFIRO 74’), 7.Fabio FERREIRA, 8.Nick MONTGOMERY (C) (16.Liam ROSE 61’), 9.Roy O’DONOVAN, 10.Anthony CACERES, 11.Nick FITZGERALD, 21.Michael NEILL, 22.Jake McGING,
Unused substitutes: 30.Adam PEARCE (GK), 3.Josh ROSE
Yellow cards: Ferreira 4’, Montgomery 58’
Melbourne City FC: 1.Thomas SORENSEN (GK), 4.Connor CHAPMAN, 8.Aaron MOOY, 18.Paulo RETRE, 19.Ben GARUCCIO, 21.Stefan MAUK (16.Jason TRIFIRO, 80’), 23.Bruno FORNAROLI, 24.Patrick KISNORBO (C), 25.Jacob MELLING, 28.Steve KUZMANOVSKI (7.Corey GAMEIRO 54’), 34. Stefan ZINNI (15.David WILLIAMS 50’)
Unused substitutes: 50. Alex PAVLIDIS (GK), 36.Matt MILLAR
Yellow cards: Garuccio 24’, Melling 89’, Williams 93’
Match details
Sunday 25 October 2015
Match: Melbourne City F.C. vs. Central Coast Mariners
Venue: AAMI Park, Melbourne
Kick-off: 5:00pm (AEDT)
Referee: Chris Beath
TV Broadcast: Live coverage on FOX SPORTS 505
Radio Broadcast: 96.3 Coast FM
