Central Coast Mariners coach Paul Okon revealed his half-time team talk revolved around maintaining his team’s incredible pressing and intensity against Sydney FC at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night.
The Mariners pressed and harried Sydney and were deservedly up 1-0 at the break thanks to a Blake Powell penalty.
But Brazilian Bobo scored his 16th goal of the season to help secure a point for the league leaders.
“I told the players at half-time, we’ve just got to continue running,” Okon told Fox Sports.
“You’ve just got to keep going and going and going. And when you can’t go anymore we’ll make subs.
“But don’t let them [Sydney FC] sense that we’re fatiguing. And we did that.
“And in the end if Kabbsy [Appiah-Kubi] had of cut the ball back to Hooley [Andrew Hoole] it’s an empty goal tap in and we go away with three points.”
MATCH CENTRE Re-live the game with stats, heat maps and line-ups in the match centre here
https://www.a-league.com.au/match/sydney-fc-v-central-coast-mariners-a-league-20-01-2018/928025
Okon revealed he’d been very worried about how the contest might have panned out.
“We’re a team that won’t sit back. We’re a team that takes the game to the opposition.
“If you come here [Sydney FC] with fear, there’s a good chance you’ll go home with six in the net. You have to be brave and have belief, which we do,” he said.
“We were brave, we took the game to them, we were brave and we played the way we wanted to play,” he told Fox Sports.
“With a bit more luck, we may have left here with more points,” he added.
The Mariners next host Brisbane Roar on Saturday Jan 27.
