Graham Arnold says Central Coast now have closure on their traumatic shootout loss to Brisbane in last season’s Hyundai A-League Grand Final, after taking victory at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
Graham Arnold says Central Coast now have closure on their traumatic shootout loss to Brisbane in last season’s Hyundai A-League Grand Final, after taking victory at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
The 2-1 win marked the first time the Mariners had beaten the Roar since October 2009, although the circumstances in the final 15 minutes on Saturday night were eerily similar to Brisbane’s grand final comeback triumph.
But this time the Mariners fended off the Roar’s late attack, including set-plays designed to create a goal for grand final goalscorer Erik Paartalu.
Arnold said the second half performance had left his men with a tinge of disappointment, but he still felt the victory fleshed out any of the grand-final demons lingering amongst his troops.
“It was great to see the attitude and the character,” Arnold declared.
“They carried out the game plan to perfection in the first half, but they know they can do better.”
“We put last year behind us, but if there was any scar tissue left, it’s gone tonight.”
But Arnold, like his rival coach Ange Postecoglou, wasn’t about to rest on one big win, shifting his focus straight to his side’s poor second half and declaring his goal for a more complete 90 minutes next time out.
The Mariners may be the league’s form side as they stand alone at the top of table on 23 points, but Arnold said the ladder meant little at this early stage of the season.
“These boys, I want to push them to another level,” he said.
“There’s no celebrating because we won, it’s more that we’re disappointed with our second half. I’m not looking at the ladder.”
“There are a lot of weeks to go. We’ve just started.”
Pedj Boic, who scored the Mariners’ second goal, admitted the tense finish with the Roar in possession and pouring in corners and shots had brought back some unhappy memories.
“I think it was the 89th minute they had a corner and I was marking Erik Paartalu (the grand final goal-scorer) so I was extra careful to make sure that he didn’t get on the end of it,” said Bojic.
“For a split second it all went through my head.”
