Central Coast Mariners secured F3 Derby bragging rights on Saturday afternoon with a comprehensive 5-1 win over Newcastle Jets at Industree Group Stadium
Mariners keeper Sarah Langman produced several big saves in the first half to lay the platform for the home side to take a 2-1 lead to half-time, with Brooke Nunn and Bianca Galic scoring on either side of a Josie Allan equaliser in an entertaining first half.
But two more Mariners goals in the first seven minutes of the second half put the hosts out of sight in Gosford; 16-year-old Tiana Fuller scored her fourth goal of the season before Jade Pennock fired Central Coast into a 4-1 lead.
Claudia Cicco was given a straight red card in the 77th minute for dragging down Mariners striker Annalise Rasmussen by the shirt; despite the incident occurring just inside the Mariners’ attacking half, referee Rebecca Mackie deemed it a red card offence as the Jets were reduced to 10 players for the remainder of their F3 Derby defeat.
Peta Trimis put the icing on the cake of a dominant derby display with a clinical finish into the bottom-left corner in second-half stoppage time as the Mariners ran out 5-1 winners.
The four-goal win helped Central Coast rise from sixth spot on the Ninja A-League table up to fourth.
The first chance of the F3 Derby fell to the Jets and Sophie Hoban who called Sarah Langman into a diving save in the seventh minute.
Langman’s early save was a big moment in the context of the game as the Mariners responded to the early scare with an attacking foray of their own – one sparked by a magnificent turn and shot by Jade Pennock that Danielle Krzyzaniak saved into Nunn’s path for the opening goal.
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Having fallen behind in Gosford, the Jets looked to find a rapid response and, if not for another superb piece of goalkeeping from Langman, they would have found the equaliser.
India Breier had the close-range attempt but the Mariners keeper produced a reaction stop to somehow keep the Jets at bay.
Newcastle captain Cassidy Davis kept up the attacking pressure with a bullet strike from outside the box but Langman’s fingertip save diverted the ball off the underside of the crossbar as the Mariners kept their one-goal lead intact.
Through the first half-hour of play, 18-year-old Jets winger Josie Allan was Newcastle’s brightest spark and, having been involved of plenty of the away side’s best attacking play, got her name on the scoresheet with a clinical finish through bodies to level the scores.
But Newcastle’s parity lasted just three minutes. Mariners captain Bianca Galic was the beneficiary of an error from Krzyzaniak who was caught dwelling on the ball in the penalty area, with her attempted clearance falling directly to the midfielder for a simple finish.
Breier continued to prove a threat to the Mariners’ defence as the first half wore on and received her second big chance of the game when she arrived at the back post to scoop a first-time effort over the head of Langman and off the crossbar.
Five minutes after half-time, the Mariners made is 3-1 and it was 16-year-old Fuller who was in the right place at the right time to sweep home her second goal in as many games, and fourth goal of the season, after a spill from Krzyzaniak from a cross off the left wing.
Having created a two-goal buffer, the Mariners looked to capitalise on their momentum, and put the result beyond doubt in the 52nd minute when Pennock scored the home side’s fourth of the afternoon.
Pennock’s initial shot hit the post but the rebound fell kindly to the English forward who tucked the ball into an open net.
In the 77th minute, Newcastle were reduced to 10 when Cicco received her marching order for sending Rasmussen to ground with a shirt pull; referee Mackie deemed Cicco had committed the offence as the last defender and elected to send off the Jets defender.
Langman made one last big save to keep the score at 4-1 before Trimis put the exclamation point on a dominant F3 Derby performance, firing home the Mariners’ fifth of the game in the 93rd minute.
