Perth Glory and Central Coast Mariners shared the spoils in a back-and-forth, unpredictable six-goal thriller on Friday night, with a 93rd-minute equaliser seeing Glory take a point from the 3-3 draw.
Mariners defender Jessika Nash opened the scoring in the 19th minute but a brace from Sarah O’Donoghue early in the second half saw Perth come from behind to lead at Industree Group Stadium.
Then it was Central Coast’s turn to swing momentum with two quickfire goals; Annalise Ramussen and Tiana Fuller scored within eight minutes of one another to give the Mariners a 3-2 lead with 20 minutes to play.
But in the third minute of stoppage time, Tijan McKenna bagged an all-important third for Perth as the contest finished with both sides locked level at 3-3; the full-time whistle brought the action to a close as one of the games of the season ended all square.
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Central Coast keeper Sarah Langman took on her former side Perth in Gosford on Friday night, and was called into a big early save to deny her old club.
Tijan McKenna fired a shot from distance toward the top-right corner but Langman’s intervention denied the young midfielder a spectacular goal.
Down the other end, the Mariners threatened from a well-worked short corner routine that sparked chaos in their attacking box; after a series of blocked shots, centre-back Nash pounced on the loose ball and fired a strike into the top-right corner to give her side the lead.
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Annalise Rasmussen almost made it 2-0 soon after but Glory keeper Casey Dumont closed the space to make a stunning double save and keep her side in the contest.
Glory trailed 1-0 at the break but just 11 minutes after the restart, the visitors had taken the lead.
Sarah O’Donoghue did the damage for Glory with two goals in quick succession, with the first coming direct from a set piece.
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Buoyed by her first goal of the game, O’Donoghue quickly doubled her tally with a fine finish under immense pressure from the outrushing Langman as Glory took an unexpected lead.
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But that wasn’t the end of the drama in Gosford on Friday night.
Just six minutes after O’Donoghue’s go-ahead goal for Perth, Rasmussen brought the Mariners back on level terms with a clinical finish to a sweeping counter attack.
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Rasmussen’s equaliser set the stage for teenage Mariners forward Tiana Fuller to restore Central Coast’s lead at 3-2. Fresh off the bench, Fuller wasted no time making her mark on the contest, taking the ball past Dumont to finish into an open net just six minutes after coming on as a substitute.
Fuller looked set to be the hero in Gosford but McKenna had other ideas; the 20-year-old midfielder got on the end of an attacking move that began with Casey Dumont’s long ball, and finished past Langman into the bottom-left corner to earn Glory a dramatic point at Industree Group Stadium.
