Melbourne City are now just six points behind league leaders Auckland FC after they defeated Central Coast Mariners 1-0 at AAMI Park.
City broke the deadlock in the 29th minute as forward Medin Memeti slotted home his fourth goal of the campaign, rounding out a brilliantly worked free-kick which left the Mariners chasing shadows inside their own box.
Despite dominating the contest at AAMI Park City couldn’t find a second to truly put the contest to bed and survived a late scare when Mariners defender Mikael Doka whipped a dangerous free-kick narrowly wide of the target.
However Aurelio Vidmar’s side secured the three points at home to move six points behind the league leaders and stay hot on the heels of second-placed Western United.
As for the Mariners, Mark Jackson’s side failed to register a single shot on target at AAMI Park and remain 10th on the ladder.
Despite the Mariners carving out the better of the early chances it was City who broke the deadlock in the 29th minute courtesy of a move straight off the training pitch.
Receiving the ball on the edge of the area from a well-disguised short free-kick, Socceroo Tilio picked out the run of Kai Trewin at the back post and the defender’s clever cut back was then tapped home by the arriving Memeti to make it 1-0.
Now behind, the Mariners were almost two-down at half-time as Memeti forced keeper Peraic-Cullen into a smart save to beat away his header.
Picking up where they left off, the home side looked to hammer home their dominance in the second-half as Kai Trewin warmed the gloves of Dylan Peraic-Cullen with a shot from the edge of the box.
However, while City were controlling the game they almost gifted the Mariners an equaliser in comical fashion.
A long way out of his goal, City keeper Patrick Beach came to mop-up a loose ball inside his own half but inadvertently passed the ball straight to Alou Kuol rather than his teammate leaving Kuol with an open goal, however the striker’s shot from fully 50-metres out was deflected wide of the target.
Recovering from their minor hiccup, City were again denied by Peraic-Cullen at the other end as the big shot-stopper thwarted Memeti from close range before then smothering a fierce low shot from striker Max Caputo.
Struggling to gain a foothold in the game, the Mariners rarely threatened the City box however they did have goalkeeper Beach worried late in the contest as Mikael Doka whipped a dangerous freekick narrowly wide of the target.
Without a shot on target in the entire game, the Mariners threw everything forward in the dying stages but the closest they came to snatching a point was a late header which landed on the roof of the net before the referee blew for full time.
