His team has lost four games on the trot and not scored in three of them but Central Coast coach Lawrie McKinna is still confident the Mariners can knock off Queensland at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.
The Mariners will be up against it after losing the first leg of the Minor Semi-Final 2-0 at Gosford last week.
The Mariners must at least reverse that result to force the semi-final into extra-time.
Everything is pointing to a Queensland win. The Roar have been in outstanding form in the lead up to the finals and are winning impressively at home.
But the Roar will know to never underestimate the fighting qualities of the Mariners, who boast a 4-2 win at the venue this season.
“We’ve showed a lot of times over the years we’ve got great fighting spirit and can come back from tough situations,” McKinna said.
“Our performance in the first leg wasn’t great so we need to show a lot of improvement.”
“But I’m confident we can play much better and put a lot of pressure on Queensland in front of their fans.”
McKinna said the key to Mariners’ success on Friday night was not allowing the home side to score early.
“We won’t be going out and trying to score every time we’ve got the ball,” McKinna said.
“If they score early it’s all but over. But if we can hold them out we’re in it.”
“Even if we score with 10 minutes to go they’ll have all the pressure on them.”
