With the taste for winning now in their mouths, Central Coast Mariners boss Mike Mulvey has challenged his side to maintain the rage for the rest of the Hyundai A-League 2018/19 Season.
In a huge upset on Wednesday night, the Mariners ended their 327-day wait for a win by defeating Melbourne City 2-1 in Gosford.
The result – their first win of the campaign – also snapped a 10-game losing streak for the club and will be a massive relief heading into the second half of the 2018/19 Season.
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While keen for his players to enjoy their drought-breaking victory, Mulvey hopes it’s the start of many more wins, beginning with Sunday’s clash against fellow strugglers Brisbane Roar.
“It’s a win and it’s important that we have had a kill by winning,” a delighted Mariners boss said.
“We’ve tasted it. Now we want to find out how hungry we are to get more.
“I’ve said for the last few weeks if we kept 11 on the field against Sydney and 11 on the field against [the Phoenix] we would have won those games or gone close to winning those games.”
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The Mariners took the lead in the first-half through Connor Pain and maintained their advantage for a long period before former Central Coast attacker Lachie Wales equalised 13 minutes from time.
But in the dying minutes Matt Simon won and converted – on the rebound – a penalty to send the small but vocal crowd into raptures.
The home side still had to survive some nervy moments late on, with keeper Ben Kennedy denying Florin Berenguer’s fierce strike to preserve their advantage,
“I think everybody in the whole of Australia would have thought (here we go again),” Mulvey said.
“The whole of Australia except our team and dressing room. Because we believe we can get results.
“What we did differently today was we held onto that shape and we realised we can get them on the break or build an attack. And that’s what we did.”
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City boss Warren Joyce described his side’s performance as naïve but denies they were complacent against the league’s cellar-dwellers.
“I think if you look at the games objectively they’ve [Mariners] played well the last two games barring the sending offs,” Joyce said.
“They’ve played 10 men for a long period. They’ve played some good football. So we weren’t coming here thinking it was going to be easier than any of the other games we’ve had.
“They’ve been impressive, they’ve been one of the better teams the last few weeks.”
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City will be hoping to bounce back quickly as they host league-leaders Perth Glory on Saturday night at AAMI Park, and you can see the match live on FOX SPORTS 505 or 10 Bold.