Subway Socceroos hopeful Noah Botic moved clear atop the Isuzu UTE A-League Golden Boot standings as Western United soared up to second in the table with a 3-1 victory over Central Coast Mariners.
Western United had never beaten the Mariners in Gosford but that changed on Friday night thanks to red-hot star Botic and substitutes Luke Vickery and Michael Ruhs.
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Botic’s league-high 10th goal of the season, and seventh in seven games, gave the visitors a 52nd-minute lead and further boosted his chances of a maiden Socceroos call-up for March’s FIFA Men’s World Cup qualifiers before a Tomoki Imai own goal brought the Mariners level with 14 minutes of regulation remaining.
But Vickery came off the bench to restore Western’s lead five minutes later while celebrating his first A-Leagues goal and Ruhs then sealed the deal in the 96th minute.
After back-to-back wins, Western are now second and seven points off the pace though Adelaide United are due to meet leaders Auckland FC on Saturday, while two-time reigning champions Central Coast are 10th and seven points outside of the top six.
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Central Coast were coming off a 4-0 defeat to Western Sydney Wanderers but history was on the side of the Mariners.
The Mariners carried an eight-game unbeaten run against Western (W6 D2) into the fixture, dating back to their last defeat to the 2022 champions in April 2021. In fact, Western had never beaten Central Coast in Gosford though they outclassed Adelaide United 3-0 last week.
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Before kick-off, there was exclusive dressing-room access as the Paramount+ cameras went behind the scenes to listen in on John Aloisi’s pre-game address to his Western United squad.
On the field, Western had the better of the chances and came close to hitting the front in the 22nd minute.
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Some brilliant work from Abel Walatee saw him through on goal as he sliced his shot underneath the goalkeeper before Matt Grimaldi pounced but Sasha Kuzevski made a goal-line clearance to keep the Mariners on level terms.
That proved to be Walatee’s last piece of action as the Western livewire succumbed to injury.
The visitors created plenty of openings but were not lethal enough, while stand-in captain Tomoki Imai forced Dylan Peraic-Cullen to tip his header over the crossbar in the 36th minute.
Grimaldi showed great feet and awareness to find substitute Riku Danzaki after a decoy move, but the Japanese winger saw his effort flash wide of the post five minutes into the second half.
Western, though, got their goal moments later as Notic capped off a scintillating team move that carved open the Mariners – a move almost identical to the one that saw the striker complete another fine team attack against Adelaide United.
That put the Green and Black in a strong position – Western had avoided defeat in their last seven matches when scoring first since a 2-1 loss to Adelaide United in November.
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The Mariners appealed for a penalty shortly afterwards but those appeals were waved away.
Central Coast continued to push forward in search of an equaliser and they got it when Western defender Imai turned the ball into his own net in the 77th minute.
But Western restored their advantage four minutes later as former Mariner picked out fellow substitute Vickery for a simple tap-in.
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Space opened up for Bailey Brandtman to equalise for the Mariners in the 87th minute but Western goalkeeper Matt Sutton made a wonderful save to thwart the home side before Ruhs made sure of the points for Western deep in stoppage time.
