Central Coast made it back-to-back wins in the National Youth League with an upset 1-0 win against third-placed Queensland in Gosford on Saturday.
The win at Bluetongue Stadium continues an impressive revival for the Mariners.
Three weeks ago the team was hammered 6-1 in front of their own fans by Adelaide. But since that defeat the Mariners have drawn with Melbourne and beat Perth last week, both away from home.
Saturday’s 1-0 victory against the Roar was easily the team’s best effort of the season.
Greg Owens scored the only goal of the match in the 26th minute, finishing off a good move with a powerful close range strike.
Owens, who has battled injury all season, was a constant threat to the Roar defence and should have scored at least one other goal.
Assistant coach Damien Brown was delighted with the performance.
“Things are coming together well for us,” Brown said.
“The boys are working very hard and I can’t fault the Hyundai A-League guys coming back to us, they’ve been great.”
Brown made a special mention of Mariners Hyundai A-League star Dean Heffernan, who played the full 90 minutes for the first time in nearly a year.
Heffernan was heavily involved, especially in the first half, and will be pushing for a return to the Hyundai A-League in the coming weeks.
“It’s great to stay on the field for 90 minutes, it’s been a long time,” Heffernan said.
Queensland rarely threatened Central Coast’s defence in what was a disappointing performance from the visitors. There was some good news for Roar with Robbie Kruse playing for the first time in nearly two months after battling a serious hamstring injury.
Kruse had limited opportunities before being replaced at half-time.
Match Details
Central Coast Mariners 1 (Greg Owens 28-)
Queensland Roar 0
Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
Saturday 6 December 2008
Referee: Tim McGilchrist
Assistant Referees: Stephen Duckitt, Stephen Lucas
Fourth Official: Kurt Ams
Central Coast Mariners line-up: 20.Andrew REDMAYNE(gk), 2.Steven TIBBETTS, 5.Nathan SHERLOCK, 8.Dean HEFFERNAN (OA), 9.Brady SMITH, 11.Darko VIDOVIC, 12.Scott WRIGHT, 13.Laurence BRAUDE (6.Ty OWENS 63-), 14.GREG OWENS (OA),17.Sean MITCHELL (10.Glen TRIFIRO 53-) 18.PAUL O-GRADY (OA) (7.Nick KAPSIS 63-)
Yellow cards: Glen TRIFIRO 85-
Red Cards: Nil
Queensland Roar line-up: 1.Griffin McMASTER (gk) (OA) (20.Matt ACTON (gk) 60-), 2.Michael RYAN, 3.Robbie KRUSE (8.Michael ANGUS 45-), 4.Mitchell BEVAN (5.Brad McDONALD 54-) 6. Matthew MUNDY, 7.Adam SAROTA (c),10.Tommy OAR, 11.Josh McVEY, 12.William TUMUSIIME (9.Tyler THURTELL 60-), 13.Chris GROSSMAN, 14.Luke BRATTAN
Yellow cards: Chris GROSSMAN 80-, Matthew MUNDY 88-
Red Cards: Nil
