Western Sydney Wanderers defender Scott Neville has taken a shot at Central Coast Mariners supporters ahead of the two sides’ Round 9 clash in Gosford on Saturday.
Neville has lit a fuse by suggesting Western Sydney’s travelling fans drowned out the home side’s support in the corresponding fixture last season, putting the Coast fans “to shame”.
“Last year when we went up there it felt like we were playing at home, we had that many fans travel. I think they put the Mariners fans to shame,” Neville told reporters on Tuesday.
“If we can do that again this week and when we play in these type of places like Newcastle and Central Coast it just shows how strong of a club we are and how good are fan base are. They’re our 12th man for us.
“We need to get the win for them but also to start rocketing up that table like we did last season.”
The Wanderers have drawn five of their last six matches, surrendering their spot in the top six, ironically, to the Mariners after their win over Perth in Gosford last week.
Despite dominating Roar for long stretches last weekend, registering nearly three times as many shots on target, Western Sydney couldn’t convert that domination into goals.
It was a similar situation when these sides met in Round 4, with Brendon Santalab finding the back of the net after 90 seconds, however the Mariners fought back to earn a 1-1 draw at Spotless Stadium.
“I think the last three, four weeks we’ve been saying we need to pick up the three points and this is no different,” said Neville.
“This [match] really has to start our season and get it rolling.
“I thought we dominated from start to finish [against Brisbane], unfortunately we couldn’t put away the chances that we created but I think it’s the best performance of the season so far defensively and offensively.
“We’ve still got to limit the mistakes … but we also need to be more ruthless in front of goal, which we’ve been saying for a few weeks now.”
