Central Coast Mariners captain Danny Vukovic is ready for a massive match against Adelaide United on Friday night, with the team coming off the back of an impressive 3-1 win over the Jets last weekend.
It’s been a hugely successful month for the Central Coast since the international break, undefeated in our last four matches including collecting 10 of a possible 12 points.
After important games against Melbourne City and the Jets over the past fortnight, the tough fixtures certainly don’t stop, with a place in the top two on the line.
A win against Adelaide will go a long way to seeing the Mariners finish in second, with the Wanderers needing to better that result against Melbourne City to push them into that position.
Vukovic and the team’s eyes firmly fixed on that goal, with second place well and truly in reach.
“We’ve put ourselves in a position now where we can still finish second and six weeks ago, we weren’t really close to that. We’ve worked hard and we’ve sort of turned things around a little bit,” he said.
“We weren’t playing great football six weeks ago and now we’re starting to, but we still feel we have a lot of improvement left.”
Despite a slow start against the Jets, the Mariners were able to turn around an early one goal deficit to secure the 3-1 victory. Vukovic was extremely pleased with the result, however does see room for improvement.
“We were certainly very happy with the result. It’s always nice to beat our biggest rivals,” he said.
“I think performance wise, we feel we can do a lot better and the pleasing aspect is we didn’t play our best football but we got the win. We’re building nicely into the finals.”
The captain extremely thankful for the incredible support shown by the thousands of Mariners fans who filled the stands, believing that it felt more like a home game than an away match.
“It was amazing and a big thank you to everyone that came down. It felt more like a home game than an away game and our supporters certainly out supported the Newcastle Jets supporters,” he said.
“I think it was a big, big factor in us being successful on the night and we’re looking forward to playing a home final whether it’s after having a week off or not. To get all those people back in the stadium here on the Central Coast is going to be amazing.”
Before that final’s match the Mariners will take on Adelaide at Coopers Stadium on Friday night, with the result to determine when we do return to Industree Group Stadium for the finals.
Vukovic and the team are certainly not taking the home side lightly, knowing the dangers that they possess.
“They’re very, very dangerous going forward. I think they play a little bit more on the counterattack, as opposed to other teams and they have some dangerous players up front,” Vukovic said.
“Of course, Craig Goodwin being the star of the show there and certainly one that we need to keep quiet if we if we’re going to get anything out of the game. We know it’s going to be a difficult game, a big atmosphere and one that we’re looking forward to. These are the types of games that you want to play.”
