Central Coast Mariners secured a 2-1 win over second-placed Wellington Phoenix thanks to goals from Eliza Familton and Isabel Gomez.
Spectators at Polytec Stadium were made to wait, but an action-packed second-half went right to the wire. Eliza Familton marked her first start in the NINJA A-League with a goal before Isabel Gomez thumped in the Mariners’ second. Macey Fraser sparked life into the closing stages when she curled in a stunning free-kick in stoppage time, but the hosts were fully deserving of the valuable three points.
The win shoots the Mariners from eighth into fifth and provides a huge boost to their playoff aspirations. Wellington failed to make up ground on leaders Melbourne City and face an uphill battle to keep their title hopes alive.
Clear-cut chances were at a premium in the first-half but the best came in the 45th minute, when Manaia Elliot dispossessed Annabel Martin and played the ball into Mackenzie Anthony who drilled a shot that drifted narrowly wide of the top right corner.
The second-half started with all the energy that was missing from the first, as Isabel Gomez picked up the ball in midfield and wriggled through the challenge of Elliot but was denied by a strong reaction save from Victoria Esson.
Pia Vlok responded by wrestling the ball off of Avaani Prakash and sending a venomous volley just high of Annalee Grove’s crossbar.
The second-half continued at breakneck speed and the returning Brooke Nunn, who had been physical and imposing but unable to find an end product, came close when she swivelled and curled a shot towards goal from outside the area that struck the crossbar.
But it was the Mariners who broke the deadlock when Peta Trimis was found out wide from a throw-in and curled a cross onto the head of Eliza Familton, who nodded the ball beyond Esson to mark her first start in the NINJA A-League with a goal.
The hosts rode the wave of pressure that followed a flurry of Wellington substitutions and responded in style when Tamar Levin squared the ball to Gomez, who cannoned her shot off the underside of the bar and into the back of the net, doubling her side’s lead.
The visitors sparked life into the closing stages when, in the 93rd minute, substitute Macey Fraser curled in a pearler of a free-kick from long range. Brilliant as the goal was, it proved to have come too late and the Mariners held on to secure a hugely admirable win over second-place.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
WHAT THEY SAID
Eliza Familton
Victoria Esson
