The wait is finally over for long-suffering Central Coast fans after the Mariners scored their first Hyundai A-League victory since November against the Newcastle Jets at Gosford on Monday night.
The 3-0 win at Bluetongue Stadium ended the worst run of outs in the club’s history.
But the win came too late with the club out of finals contention after a defeat against Perth in Round 25.
However, it will give the club something to build on for next season with coach Lawrie McKinna using several young players.
It was the Mariners’ first win at Gosford since a 3-0 victory over Gold Coast in Round 7 and means the club is no chance of finishing with the wooden spoon for the first time.
Defender Nigel Boogaard, who is leaving for Adelaide at the end of the season, opened the scoring in the 17th minute before second-half goals to Adam Kwasnik and Matt Simon sealed a deserved victory.
Newcastle started well and had a great chance to open the scoring after only three minutes when a header from Labinot Haliti struck Jets captain Matt Thompson close to the line.
Thompson had no time to control the ball and get a shot in and the chance was lost.
The Mariners worked into the game nicely and took the lead through a Boogaard header after a well-placed corner from Brad Porter.
It was Boogaard’s second goal of the season and both came against the Jets at Gosford.
The Jets responded in strong fashion with two good chances falling to Ali Abbas.
The first came in the 20th minute when his powerful shot from outside the box forced Danny Vukovic into a diving save.
Within a minute Abbas had another shot on target but was again denied by the Mariners shot-stopper.
It was all the Mariners in the second half.
Kwasnik lobbed Jets goalkeeper Ben Kennedy in the 50th minute after great lead-up play from defender Shane Huke.
The match was over as a contest in the 56th minute when Haliti was sent off by referee Ben Williams after picking up two yellow cards in the space of eight minutes, the second for a deliberate hand ball.
Haliti will miss the club’s final home-and-away match against Adelaide but is expected back for the first match of the finals.
Simon ended his run of outs in front of goal with the Mariners’ third after replacement Brady Smith provided the final ball.
The Mariners also finished the match a man down with midfielder Pedj Bojic picking up a second yellow card in the 88th minute.
Central Coast 3 (Nigel Boogaard 17, Adam Kwasnik 50, Matt Simon 72)
Newcastle 0
Crowd: 5842.
