The Central Coast Mariners have given the North Queensland Fury a footballing lesson on Saturday night with a 5-1 drubbing at Dairy Farmers Stadium.
The Mariners showed their class with a frenzied 15 minute period that saw Pedj Bojic (22) and Nik Mrdja (35) score.
The visitors then capped it off after the break with Mrdja netting a second just before the hour followed by Ahmad Elrich (62) and John Hutchinson (82) – making it the side’s first five-goal outing.
The Fury showed why they were at the bottom of the ladder with a lack of cohesion and polished finishing which even extended to their marquee skipper Robbie Fowler, who struggled for meaningful possession with only Rostyn Griffiths finding the onion bag in the 68th minute.
Central Coast coach Lawrie McKinna said he was pleased with his side’s first back-to-back victory in spite of the tough road trip and humid conditions.
“It’s a huge, huge win for the club,” he said.
“We were pretty disappointed in the first half, despite being up 2-0 and the second half they just came at us.”
“We have done well with teams at the top of the league and then struggled with teams at the bottom of the league, it was good to go back to back.”
North Queensland coach Ian Ferguson said it was back to the drawing board.
“Again we are back to the old days, at the beginning where we were all over the place defensively and going forward,” he said,
“We created three or four good chances but we didn’t take them.”
“The difference today was the Mariners were clinical in what they did; they worked the park and put the ball in the back of the net.”
The class of the goalkeepers was a stark difference with the host’s Paul Henderson suffering a horror night missing text book saves, while the visitor’s Danny Vukovic survived one-on-one with an attacker and then combated a series of three rapid shots to show why he’s regarded as one of the best in the country.
North Queensland had its first opportunity of the game in the second minute when a cross into the box found Fred Agius, but he skyed the ball over the net.
David Williams had a chance less than a minute later when a horror back pass to Vukovic saw the ball roll into that attackers path, but it was cleared with seconds to spare.
Fowler intercepted a header meant for a defender in the 19th minute and after a one-two with Daniel McBreen raced into a gap chasing a through ball but ended up buried in the turf after hard contact.
Central Coast made its first opportunity of the night count, though, after a long ball in the 22nd minute from Dean Heffernan found Bojic wide of the right post, allowing him to shoot into the far corner past Henderson who should have had his angles covered for a 1-0 lead.
Nik Mrdja doubled the pain 13 minutes later with a low, penetrating free kick from just outside the 18-yard box peeling through the wall and past a diving Henderson to make the score 2-0..
Adam Kwasnik pulled the trigger minutes later but his shot hit the post much to the luck of a flat-footed Henderson whose night was going from bad to worse.
The home side had a last ditch chance before the break with Fowler letting loose directly in front and then taking the rebound for McBreen to fire into Vukovic and then wide of the post in a frantic shooting frenzy.
The Fury wasn’t going to die wondering in the second half with Williams shooting right at the unmovable Vukovic.
Dyron Daal, brought off the bench in the 51st minute, made an immediate impact with a curling shot at the goal denied by the corner of the goal frame.
The Mariners quickly put a stop to the uprising, with Mrdja galloping through defenders and despite two team mates lining up unmarked, shot into the left corner to make it 3-0 in 59th minute.
Ahmad Elrich added another nail in the coffin three minutes later after series of first touches, slotting past a defenceless Henderson to make it 4-0
The home side was lucky to get on the scoreboard when a shot veered through a crowded box and into Griffiths who deflected it into the net in the 68th minute.
Mariner Hutchinson then took a perfectly weighted long ball on the break and fended off two defenders to knock in the fifth goal of the night with eight minutes remaining.
North Queensland Fury 1 (Griffiths 68)
Central Coast Mariners 5 (Bojic 22, Mrdja 35, 59, Elrich 62, Hutchinson 82)
Crowd 7,587 at Dairy Farmers Stadium
