Central Coast Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna said his team ‘deserved’ to beat Sydney FC in another action-packed derby at Bluetongue Stadium in Gosford on Saturday night.
A 90th minute penalty from star midfielder Mile Jedinak fired the Mariners to a 2-1 victory and third place on the ladder.
It was an amazing match with Sydney captain Steve Corica, who started the game off the bench, missing with a close range header in injury time.
“The first half we dominated and we defended really well when they put pressure on us,” McKinna said.
“We deserved the three points. We caused them a lot of problems down the flanks and the back four did a great job.”
Mariners striker Dylan Macallister, who netted his fourth goal of the season in the first half, was outstanding and delighted with the result.
Macallister is rated a strong chance for a call up to Pim Verbeek’s national squad but is focused on performing for the Mariners.
“I’m not thinking of anything outside of that,” he said.
Sydney coach John Kosmina was disappointed with the result but not the effort of his players.
“We battled away,” he said.
“We weren’t the greatest in the first half but in the second half we had a legitimate penalty denied. The Mariners deserve some credit, they’re a good team.”
“I think we deserved a minium of a point.”
Sydney striker John Aloisi, who scored from the penalty spot in the second half, hopes his goal is the first of many in the run into the finals.
Aloisi’s first penalty was saved with referee Peter Green ruling the Mariners moved in to the box before he struck the ball. He made no mistake with the second attempt.
“Hopefully I start scoring on a regular basis,” he said.
“I was happy to score but disappointed with the result.”
