Sydney FC v Central Coast Mariners: Sydney get convincing win against struggling Mariners

ALMOST a year ago Sydney FC reset their season with a demolition of the Central Coast Mariners, and on Saturday night history repeated itself, with a 4-1 thumping.

Sydney's captain Alex Brosque (14) celebrates with team mates after scoring a goal during the round 12 A-League match between Sydney FC and the Central Coast Mariners at Allianz Stadium in Sydney, on Saturday Dec. 26, 2015. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY

ALMOST a year ago Sydney FC reset their season with a demolition of the Mariners, and on Saturday night history repeated itself at Allianz Stadium.

A 4-1 thumping of Central Coast added more than a third to Sydney’s goals tally for the season so far, though it came at a cost with Alex Brosque reinjuring his hamstring and Matt Simon in danger of trial by video for an apparent elbow in the first half.

But Graham Arnold will be satisfied that against the league’s bottom side, they at last began to convert some chances. If his team was oddly reluctant to go for the kill in the second half, with the Mariners down to 10 men after Paul Izzo’s dismissal, at least the home fans had goals to applaud at last.

“It’s hard sometimes to play against 10 men — the boys had played exceptionally well against 11, though we gave away a soft goal,” said Arnold. “But we had a young team out there, two aged 18 and two aged 20. When we up against 10 men they maybe got a bit excited and tried to dribble a bit too much. But they’ll learn.”

The Mariners were poor again, for all that they had to play more than an hour a man short. A club record sixth straight loss never looked anything but a formality. The team of would-be entertainers are finding that you have to earn the right to play.

“Sydney were better than us — we had high hopes before hand but we needed to keep the ball better,” said coach Tony Walmsley. “We made mistakes that led to goals. Sydney deserved to win, and we’ll start again and look to correct some of the things that went on.”

Mickael Tavares of Sydney FC celebrates.

The Mariners rarely looked convincing anywhere, but least of all at the back, and Sydney were ahead after just 12 minutes. Milos Ninkovic was the creator, swapping passes with Andrew Hoole before returning another to him to bisect the Mariners back four. Though Izzo bravely blocked Hoole’s path, the ball bounced up for Alex Brosque to slot home the opening goal.

On 23 minutes Jake McGing’s careless touch in his own box allowed Ninkovic to steal the ball away and go down under McGing’s challenge. Though contact appeared minimal on the replay referee Ben Williams duly awarded the penalty. Brosque tucked it away.

There was immediate fallout on two counts. First Brosque limped off, holding his hamstring injured, and Izzo collected a yellow card for dissent. Four minutes later he had another and was walking off, as Sydney earned a far more legitimate penalty.

O’Neill’s pass created it, with Izzo misjudging its path, missing the ball but collecting George Blackwood to concede the spotkick — and earn his marching orders. Instantly the Mariners threw on 18-year-old Thomas Heward-Belle, their reserve goalkeeper, but he couldn’t stop Mickael Tavares’s penalty making it 3-0.

Paul Izzo of the Mariners receives a red card from referee Ben Williams.

Sydney sensed blood, but it was the Mariners who registered next, just before the break as Matt Sim produced a dipping cross to be met by the forehead of Harry Ascroft, unmarked and able to make it 3-1. Moments later there was more impact on Ascroft’s head, as Matt Simon struck him from behind off the ball, and was exceedingly lucky that the incident was apparently missed by the officials.

Sydney could have added a fourth, when O’Neill’s freekick early in the second half struck the top of the bar. But strangely Sydney lost their impetus as the game wore, the advantage of the extra man not playing out into possession.

In fact the Mariners had a brief flurry of attacking intent, Vedran Janjetovic scooping the ball clear at the feet of Roy O’Donovan as the visitors sought to wrest their way back into the contest. But much like the thunderstorms that were forecast but largely stayed away, the pace of the game had become unexpectedly quiet.

O’Neill tried to force the pace, driving in a swerving cross to the far post that Hoole sidefooted wide from almost point blank range. But with six minutes left, Hoole fed Grant down the right, and the fullback’s low cross hit McGing and dribbled in for the home side’s fourth.

Originally published as Sydney FC v Central Coast Mariners: Sydney get convincing win against struggling Mariners