April 30, 2022
The Australian A-League is approaching the business end to its season, with just three rounds of regular season matches left to play before the Championship play-offs start.
Today’s match saw a meeting of 6th vs 3rd with the Mariners looking to secure a top 6 finish to make the play-offs, whilst Western United could go top with a win and other results going their way. The Mariners possessed the league’s second-best attack, whilst Western held the second-best defensive record.
The Central Coast Mariners are located, unsurprisingly, on the Central Coast, in the city of Gosford, which is around 80 kilometres north of Sydney. The Central Coast Stadium, which has a capacity of 20,059, is located close to waterfront, with attractive views of the bay.
The Mariners have previously featured in these diaries, when in February 2019 I was able to attend their match against Sydney FC at the Leichhardt Oval. With the family in Australia having a holiday home just outside Gosford, I could also have an opportunity to watch a Mariners home match next season on the next visit to Australia !
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2020/01/sydney-fc-1-1-central-coast-mariners.html
The Mariners have arguably the best signing of the season, with ex-Scotland international Jason Cummings ( 2 caps ) having scored 9 goals in 17 appearances since signing mid-way during the season. After a career including spells with Hibernian, Nottingham Forest, Glasgow Rangers and Dundee amongst others, Cummings now has Australian citizenship and could be called up for Australia’s World-Cup play-off matches.
Other players of note in the Mariners line-up today included ex-German international winger Nicolai Muller ( 2 caps and ex-Mainz and Hamburger SV ) and Brazilian forward Moresche had a short spell with Belarus side Torpedo Zhodino in 2020. Defender Kye Rawles was called up into the most recent Australian squad, but had to pull-out due to injury, whilst veteran Costa Rican attacker Marco Urena ( 67 caps and ex-Brondby and Los Angeles FC ) was on the bench. CCM have no marquee players outside of the league salary cap.
Western United are a recent franchise into the A-League, entering for the 2019/20 season. Located in Melbourne, they represent Western Victoria, playing matches in Geelong and Ballarat whilst a purpose built stadium in Wyndham is due to be completed for the 2023 season. They have played their last two home matches in Tasmania. Their first season was a success, finishing 5th in the regular season before being eliminated in the semi-finals, but their second season ended in a disappointing 10th.
United’s marquee signing is Italian Alessandro Diamanti, formally
of Bologna, West Ham and Watford, but he was missing from today’s squad so
veteran centre-back Nikolai Toper-Stanley ( 4 caps ) was captain for the evening.
Keeper Jamie Young played for Wycombe Wanderers and Serbian striker Aleksandr
Prijovic has 2 caps and has played for POAK Salonika, Legia Warsaw as well as
Northampton and Yeovil ! Slovenian midfielder Rene Krhin has represented his
country 48 times over a career that included spells with Grenada, Nantes, Inter
Milan and Bologna, whilst Swiss centre-back Leo Lacroix has one cap and has
played for Basel, St Etienne and Hamburger SV. Prijovic is their top scorer with 9 goals in 20 appearances.
The temperature was a cool 18 degrees at kick-off but the rain that Gosford had experienced for most of the day had stopped. Tickets for the game ranged from 12.25 to 27.55 AUD, and prior to this game, the average attendance at the Central Coast Stadium this season was 3,533.
The game was live on BT Sport in the UK, and also live streamed on Bet 365.com, who perhaps surprisingly had CCM 5/4 favourites, with Western United at 2/1 and the draw at 13/5.
There was a lively start to the match as both sides looked to go forward, but no chances were created, with the final pass usually going astray. The visitors were forced into an early substitution when midfielder Lustica was forced off with what appeared to be a calf injury, and in the 12th minute, Western’s Lachlan Wales went on a mazy run but his attempted pass to Prijovic was hacked clear by Rawles.
The first shot on goal occurred in the 19th minutes as Cummings’ 25 yard left-footed drive struck the base of the post and when the rebound reached Beni N’Kololo on the edge of area, the Frenchman’s first time left footed shot was well saved by keeper Jamie Young for a corner.
Cummings threatened again 6 minutes later when he found space inside the area and was allowed to turn and shoot but his effort was block by Lacroix at the expense of another corner. The Green and Blacks responded with a shot from Connor Pain from edge of area that was deflected for a corner with Birighitti beaten.
In the 32nd minute a long ball from the increasingly influential N’Kololo put Muller clear but the German didn’t have the pace and United full-back Imai was able to get back and put in a saving tackle for a corner. A minute later Mariners full-back Miller went down under a challenge from Toper-Stanley but despite the appeals for a penalty it was clearly no foul, and VAR didn’t bother to take a look.
The Mariners fashioned another half-chance in the 38th minute but N’Kololo’s bullet cross was just a fraction too high for Muller, who was unable to get his body over the ball, and his header sailed high and wide.
The half ended with another long-range shot by Pain being deflected over for a corner. At 0-0 at the interval, the home side had looked the more dangerous, but Western United had defended well and had shown promise on the counter-attack.
The Mariners started the second half on top, but only had a steered diving header by Cummings, which was comfortably saved, to show for their efforts. A double substitution in the 57th minute further added to their dominance as Urena came to the fore.
The ball was in the Western net in the 61st minute. N’Kololo’s cross from by-line was missed by a defender and Moresche fired home from 10 yards at the back post. Whilst the Mariners celebrated the linesman’s flag was raised, and VAR confirmed the whole of the ball had crossed the line before N’Kololo could cross, so it remained goal-less.
Urena was then too strong for Toper-Stanley but his low cross was intercepted before it could reach Cummings, but then in an occasional foray into the CCM half, Pain shot straight at the keeper from just outside the area.
Against the run of play, Western were awarded a penalty in the 68th minute when Miller clipped the ankle of Pain who went down inside the area. However, the contact looked to be outside of the area, which the VAR check confirmed and the penalty decision was over-turned. From the resultant free-kick, Kilkenny swung the ball in dangerously but it slipped just wide of the far post.
The Mariners continued to strive for the opening goal and in the 76th minute Cummings out-muscled Kilkenny but his right footed shot from 12 yards hammered straight at Young. With 10 minutes remaining Urena ran at the defence and fed Garang Kuol on edge of the area. With defenders closing in around him, the 17 year old substitute shot with hardly an back-lift and his shot found the bottom corner leaving Young helpless. It was his third goal in 6 substitute appearances for the Mariners.
Western were rocked by going behind and looked in danger of conceding again as Moresche shot from tight angle forcing a sharp save by Young for corner, from which Kuol shot inches over. Moresche looked to run clear but was halted by professional foul by Imai for the only yellow card of the match. The referee added 4 minutes of injury time, which was mostly played by the corner flag as the Mariners ran down the clock.
The final whistle saw the home fans go home happy, as their side
moved up to 5th, 4 points ahead of 7th placed MacArthur
with just two games to play. Western United remained in third place, two points
behind Melbourne City and a point behind Melbourne Victory so still in with a
good chance of finishing top or second. The two sides though, could meet again in the elimination finals.
Overall, it was a deserve victory for Central Coast, who perhaps should have won by a greater margin. Whilst Western United looked defensive solid, with keeper Jamie Young having a fine game, they lacked bite up front.
Central Coast Mariners : Birighitti – Miller, Hall, Rawles, Farrell – Muller ( Urena ), Nisbet ( Steele ), Balard, N’Kololo ( Kuol )– Moresche ( Hatch ), Cummings
Western United : Young – Imai ( Milanovic ), Lacroix, Toper-Stanley, Garuccio – Kilkenny ( Bayew ), Lustica ( Pierias ), Krhin – Wales ( Wenzel-Halls ), Prijovic, Pain
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENk73o-8VHI
