After the rain tumbled down across the Coast this week, the goals at Central Coast Stadium on Saturday night unfortunately tumbled into the Mariners net as they came up against a clinical Sydney FC side.
Despite impressive patches of form throughout the game and opportunities to go ahead missed for the Mariners, the Sky Blues were able to be more clinical in-front of goal and scored goals either side of half time to run out 5-0 winners. Going into this match though, the Wanderers are winless in over a month and dropped three points against the Roar on the weekend after a horror error from Daniel Margush which saw him sent off and Brisbane convert from the spot.
Speaking to media before the match, Mariners front-man Marco Urena was confident that his team could overcome the unfortunate result and use it as learning.
“It is really hard to maintain the same level as a professional consistently. I guarantee you that we are going to move forward.
“This will be a big learning experience for everyone and I can see in the faces that they really want to come back and show against Wanderers what we can do.”
Mariners Head Coach Nick Montgomery echoed the same thoughts as Marco and was confident in his side turning the result around despite the tight turnaround.
“It’s always good to have another game days after a little set-back and we will go and face the Wanderers who are a good physical team.
“We have six games to go and we will give everything for the next six games.”
So, who are the key players to keep an eye on?
Joshua Nisbet, (Central Coast Mariners)
The 22-year-old has been a versatile option for Nick Montgomery this season as the small-statured, but big hearted Nisbet has featured in several different positions so far this campaign.
Nisbet found himself up-front against the Newcastle Jets and net his first ever A-League Men’s goal against on the opening game of the season as the Yellow and Navy defeated their local rivals 2-1 at McDonald Jones Stadium.
The versatile 22-year-old has won over 60% of his duels contested on the ground so far this season while also winning over two tackles per game.
The midfielder is also a deadly accurate passer too, with 87% of ALL passes to Central Coast Mariners teammates finding feet while Nisbet also averages 1.2 key passes per game.
Tomer Hemed (WSW)
Coming into the A-League Men’s competition, Tomer Hemed possessed one of the most experienced CV’s seen for a striker with the then 32-year-old playing a number of games for Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion, scoring 30 goals while also playing in the lower tiers of English Football.
The now 34-year-old Hemed has netted on six occasions so far this season for the Red and Black but he has been unable to capture the form of the 20-21 season where he netted 11 goals in 21 games for Wellington Phoenix after moving from Charlton Athletic.
Despite netting on numerous occasions, Hemed has only found the back of the net every 195 minutes and has missed two big chances so far this season for Western Sydney Wanderers.
Western Sydney Wanderers v Central Coast Mariners is slated for 7:45pm at CommBank Stadium.
Match Details
Central Coast Mariners v Western Sydney Wanderers
Isuzu UTE A-League Men’s MW13
Wednesday 13th April 2022
CommBank Stadium, Western Sydney, NSW
Kick Off: 7:05pm
Tickets: Here
