Perth Glory 2 (Marinkovic 62’ & 65’) Central Coast Mariners 1 (O’Donovan 28’)
The Run Down
Despite a cracking opener to Roy O’Donovan and a flurry of chances in the final 10 minutes, the Central Coast Mariners have fallen to three minutes of madness, delivered by Perth Glory’s Nebojsa Marinkovic.
In the 28th minute of play, Storm Roux & Roy O’Donovan combined brilliantly to deliver the opening goal of the match with a touch of class.
The away side hit the break with the lead and almost doubled it; again through O’Donovan whose diving header nearly resulted in the Mariners’ second goal just moments into the second half.
Unfortunately for the travellers, Marinkovic turned on three minutes of quality, which resulted in a free-kick equaliser and a clinical finish just after the hour mark.
Full attention now turns to next Sunday’s home match that will see the Yellow & Navy take on Brisbane Roar at Central Coast Stadium.
Goals
28’ O’DONOVAN GOAL: It was the Irishman who kicked proceedings off in Western Australia thanks to an impressive build up by Roux from right back. The Kiwi international broke forward and slipped a precision ball to O’Donovan who finished with class.
62’ MARINKOVIC: Marinkovic was the danger man for Perth Glory for most of the night, the attacker sunk a trademark free-kick to equalise.
65’ MARINKOVIC (2): The Serbian doubled his tally just moments after breaking through the Mariners’ back four and finished his one-on-one opportunity.
Key moments
14’ IZZO SAVE: The Mariners’ shot stopper went down well to his left to deny a Marinkovic free kick. The Serbian attacker’s effort was low and hard but Izzo made an incredible diving save to keep the scores level.
21’ AUSTIN CROSS: As always, Mitch Austin was causing havoc down the left wing, causing Perth’s right back Aryn Williams a world of trouble. On this occasion, Austin’s cross found Anthony Caceres who was swamped before he was able to take a shot.
24’ FITZGERALD FIRES: Fitzy tried his luck from the edge of the area, his strike took a slight deflection and Covic made a great diving save to deny the Mariners’ winger.
40’ GARCIA HEADER: Marinkovic was again the danger man for Perth, his cross with five minutes remaining in the first half found the head of Richard Garcia who headed over the crossbar.
47’ O’DONOVAN HEADER: The former Sunderland striker almost doubled his tally and the lead just moments into the second half thanks to another impressive cross from Austin. O’Donovan launched himself at a diving header that was just out of reach.
53’ FITZY & CACERES COMBO: After a neat ball down the right wing, Fitzgerald picked up possession and played some sharp one-two with Caceres on the wing, Fitzgerald ended up with the shot from close range that was deflected by Covic for a corner.
72’ CACERES SHOOTS: Caceres looked to take the game into his own hands with a shot from distance, his strike was on the money but Covic plucked the effort out of his top corner.
82’ ROUX & O’DONOVAN COMBO: The duo who teamed up to bag the first goal were at it again in the front third, this time the Glory defence were first to the ball and cleared the danger before O’Donovan could shoot.
88’ BINGHAM BLAST: The young substitute held the ball up well on the edge of the 18-yard-box; Bingham turned and took his chance that was just wide of the upright.
90’ ROSE CROSS: Josh Rose curled in one of the best deliveries of the night that was almost enough to produce an equaliser; Harry Ascroft was in the box and leaped above the pack. Unfortunately his header was just off the mark.
Walmsley’s Words
“It’s tough isn’t it, it’s an opportunity missed. To be fair, the quality of the game was what you’d expect, the two bottom sides nervously going about their business hoping for something to break.”
“We scored a fantastic goal, I’m so pleased for Roy he’s put so much work in, he’s missed a couple of chances recently and you can see the professional at work everyday who got his just reward today.”
“The main message is, there’s 17 games to go with loads of points available, you win three games in succession which obviously we haven’t done, you can be right back in the mix.”
“I hurt for the fans and I hurt for the players that we’re sitting in that position but from a coaching perspective we’re two soft goals away from a result tonight.”
“They didn’t’ hurt us, they didn’t get in behind us, they weren’t a threat to us, we shot ourselves in the foot tonight.”
“The belief that I’ve got in the group, once that transfers into their heads, they will take that and grow with it and that’s when we will start to get results.”
“It’s a tough league, they need to grow and they need to grow quickly so they can grab hold of these opportunities they’ve been given and become the players we know they can be.”
“The reality is, we’ve been so close in so many games. It’s a long game, we’ve got young players on three year deals and we know they are going to blossom into great A-League players and even beyond that so I’m not worried 10 weeks in that morale might be a little bit low, I’m stimulated by it.”
Perth Glory: 1.Ante COVIC (gk), 2.Alex GRANT, 3.Marc WARREN,7.Gyorgy SANDOR, 10.Nebojsa MARINKOVIC, 11.Richard GARCIA (c),13.Diogo FERREIRA, 14.Chris HAROLD, 17.Diego CASTRO (24.Jamal REINERS 79’), 19.Josh RISDON, 23.Michael THWAITE, 29.Aryn WILLIAMS
Unused substitutions: 12.Jerrad TYSON (gk), 5.Antony GOLEC, 18.Mitch OXBORROW, 28.Joe KNOWLES
Yellow cards: Castro 19’, Reiners 84’, Ferreira 90’
Central Coast Mariners: 1.Paul IZZO (GK), 2.Storm ROUX, 3.Josh ROSE, 5.Harry ASCROFT, 6.Mitch AUSTIN (19.Josh BINGHAM 60’), 8.Nick MONTGOMERY (c) (20.Anthony KALIK 74’), 9.Roy O’DONOVAN, 10.Anthony CACERES,11.Nick FITZGERALD (24.Jake ADELSON 80’),15.Matthew SIM, 16.Liam ROSE
Unused substitutions: 40.Tom HEWARD-BELLE (GK), 23.Tomislav USKOK
Yellow cards: Ascroft 6’, L. Rose 64’,
Saturday 12 December 2015
Perth Glory 2
Central Coast Mariners 1
Venue: nib Stadium, Perth
Attendance: 5590
Referee: Ben Williams
