A devastated John Kosmina said Sydney FC’s naivety was the reason for his side’s three-goal capitulation to the Mariners.
Sydney were cruising at 3-0 up in the 62nd minute before Central Coast striker Matt Simon pulled a goal back. Substitute Nik Mrdja scored in the 70th minute and then Simon completed the comeback with his second goal just 10 minutes later.
“We gave it away. You can’t lead the Central Coast 3-0 and toss that lead away. We should’ve killed them off. Simple as that.”
“We were a bit nave at the back and you can’t make allowances for that because they put us under the pump.”
“But we were still in a good position even at 3-1. But then we started to make our life difficult.”
“People got pulled out of shape, people trying to play things that weren’t on.”
Steve Corica, Sydney’s captain for the night, was equally stunned at the comeback by the Coast and was at a loss as to how the game slipped away.
“Obviously we’ll look at the video again but we can’t give away goals like that.”
“We played some good football in the first half and not so in the second. We’ve got to improve for the next game.”
Kosmina did see one positive out of the clash. Heading into next week’s clash at home to Wellington he said the draw should make players “angry and hungry not to do it again.
“We had enough chances to win that game six or seven,” he added. ” I’m happy with the quality of goals we scored but disappointed about the lack of quality of the ones we missed.”
Kosmina speculated that experienced defender Tony Popovic would return for next week’s clash with Phoenix.
And fellow defender Iain Fyfe will be available next week after finishing his suspension for a red card in round eight.
The FC coach paid tribute to Corica for his continued running in the final stages of the game, in doing so having a dig at some of his players for not working hard enough.
“He’s [Corica] 35-year-old. How come he can still run around and chase and work?”
