Central Coast Mariners are set to welcome club legend John Hutchinson back to Industree Group Stadium on Tuesday night, as the former Mariners captain brings his Yokohama F.Marinos to Gosford in the AFC Asian Champions League Elite.
Hutchinson, who was appointed interim Marinos head coach in mid-July following Harry Kewell’s departure, is set to return to face the club where he made 228 Isuzu UTE A-League appearances and won the 2013 Championship as Mariners captain.
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Central Coast host Japanese giants Marinos – the former home of Ange Postecoglou and Kevin Muscat – on Tuesday night in a must-win match for Mark Jackson’s side; sitting 11th on the Eastern ACL Elite table with just one point from five games, the Mariners need to defeat third-place Marinos to keep their hopes of a top-eight finish and qualification for the Round of 16 alive.
But as focused as Jackson and his side are on taking three points from the Tuesday-night clash in Gosford, the Mariners coach took the time to acknowledge the special nature of Hutchinson’s return to the club where he became a legend through 10 Isuzu UTE A-League seasons.
“(I’ve heard) a lot of positive things about John,” Jackson said in his pre-game press conference on the eve of a showdown with last season’s Champions League runners-up.
“I don’t know him personally, so it will be good to meet him and good to go up against his team.
“He’s a bit of a legend at the club, we always respect people coming back and I think that’s part of the culture of the club itself. I’m sure the fans will give him a warm welcome.
“I’d like to extend my welcome to him coming as a coach with Yokohama, but at the end of the day we want to go toe-to-toe on the field with each other, we hope for a really competitive game and a good outcome.
“I’ve heard nothing but positive things about John, and looking at his team now, he’s got a very good team in Yokohama. I know he’ll be wanting to do well in this competition.”
Jackson was joined in his pre-match press conference by Mariners full-back Storm Roux who, in his first stint at the club, played alongside Hutchinson before the then-captain retired and moved into an assistant coach role in 2015.
“(He’s) a legend of the club,” Roux said.
“He was the captain when I first came here, and I obviously had a year with him coaching. A great person, and he’s doing really well as a coach now as well… it will be good to see him when he comes back tomorrow.”
The Mariners are under pressure to perform in Gosford on Tuesday night after a challenging run through the “league” phase of the ACL Elite.
Losses to Shandong Taishan, Buriram United, Kevin Muscat’s Shanghai Port and Vissel Kobe and a draw against Shanghai Shenhua have left Jackson’s side six points adrift of the top eight with just three games to play in the Eastern league.
But Jackson remains confident in his side’s ability to make a late charge up the Eastern league table; Tuesday night’s home game against Marinos – currently seventh in the J1 League – precedes the Mariners’ final two group-stage games against Johor Darul Ta’zim and Kawasaki Frontale in February.
It’s last chance saloon for Jackson and the Mariners – and the Central Coast coach is adamant there’s still life in his side’s ACL Elite campaign.
“We want to finish this competition strong,” he said. “That’s what we want to do.
“It’s not over in our mind; people might say it is but it’s not in our mind as a squad. We want to go out, we want to get that first win in the competition, we want to do it against Yokohama tomorrow. We know it’s going to be a big ask, a big task, but we’re ready for it and we’ve prepared well.
“They’re a very strong team with strong, individual players. They are aggressive, they want to press, they want to get after teams so we have to be good in those moments. We have to be good with how we handle the ball and how we position ourselves to receive the ball.
“We’ve done as much work on that as we can without being on the training pitch for a long period of time, because of the games we’ve had and travel. But we feel ready and prepared to take the game and deal with what Yokohama is going to bring: and that’s quality, aggressiveness and attacking flair as well.
“We can deal with that, and on the other side of it, we want to take it to them as well and maybe cause more of an attacking threat than we have done so far this season.
“We know as a team, not just our strikers and attacking players, it’s about us as a team. We always talk about the connectivity from a defensive point of view, but (it’s) exactly the same in an attacking point of view as well. We have to be connected, we have to support each other and try to get goals from all over the pitch.”
How to watch?
Kick-off for Central Coast’s sixth ACL Elite fixture is 7:00pm AEDT on Tuesday, December 3 at Industree Group Stadium. You can catch all the action from Central Coast Mariners v Yokohama F. Marinos LIVE on Paramount+.
Match details
Central Coast Mariners v Yokohama F. Marinos
Asian Champions League Elite
Tuesday, December 3 2024
Kick-off: 7pm AEDT
Venue: Industree Group Stadium
How to watch: Paramount+
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