The Central Coast Mariners hosted Macarthur FC at the Mariners Centre of Excellence on Tuesday morning in a pre-season friendly.
Nick Montgomery named a similar eleven to Saturday’s friendly at the Wanderers, with Harry Steele, Ruon Tongyik and Nicolai Müller replacing Dan Hall, Josh Nisbet and Marco Ureña in the starting lineup.
The match started at a high intensity and with the game in its infancy, the Mariners back-line stepped up to play offside, however Macarthur’s Lachlan Rose broke the trap, and dispatched the ball over the onrushing Birighitti, with questions of offside heard from the Mariners bench that were ignored from the officials, as the Bulls took the lead.
Montgomery’s men worked their way back into the contest and after quality wing play from Cy Goddard, his deep ball to the back post was fraught with danger and had to be poked out for a corner by Liam Rose. From the resulting Goddard inswinger, Ruon Tonygik rose highest in the pack and nodded the ball home to bring the Mariners level.
The momentum was firmly with the hosts now and as more chances were narrowly missed, the Mariners would deservedly take the lead after Nkololo won the ball from Liam Rose and slid through a killer pass to an un-marked Marco Ureña who slotted it into the corner of the net to take the Mariners into the sheds in front.
After some more changes at half time, the Mariners continued to hold the ascendency in the 2nd half and would soon find their third of the morning after Matt Simon was brought down in the box. Last year’s Golden Boot winner got his first of pre-season with a well taken penalty that pleased all in yellow and navy.
As the match continued in the later stages, both sides used the pre-season encounter to rotate the squad and provide youth players with some game time. Mariners Academy player Damian Tsekenis went closest to the next goal of the game when his tight angled attempt was pushed wide by the Bulls keeper.
After a professional and commanding performance, the match finished 3-1 to the Mariners with confident performances in the middle of the park from Steele and Bozanic, with Dan Hall making a strong effort in the 2nd half.
Nick Montgomery was really happy with the collective efforts of his team who dispatched a strong Macarthur side.
“Macarthur have got some really good players, but I thought we defended very resolutely and built on our last performance at Wanderers.”
Speaking on the performance on 19-year-old Jacob Farrell and Harry Steele, Montgomery was ecstatic with their work-rate and energy.
“It makes me so proud as a coach to see two local Central Coast boys who have worked hard through the Academy get their rewards in the first team. It must make the club proud too that they are able to produce and develop that talent however these boys are there because they deserve to be and have worked for their opportunity.”
“We now have some great impact off the bench with the likes of Damian Tsekenis coming on for Matt Simon and creating a few chances for us” Montgomery concluded.
To hear the full chat from Nick Montgomery, then click here to head on over to our YouTube Channel
The Mariners are now a few weeks away from their FFA Cup clash in Mudgee against Blacktown City and continue to work toward the start of the Izuzu UTE A-League season on the 21st of November.
