A-League: Glory days as Mariners shake monkey off back

Central Coast fans probably thought they wouldn’t wake up to this sight any time this season.

Fabio Ferreira attempts to avoid the challenge of Perth’s Rhys Williams.

Central Coast fans probably thought they wouldn’t see it this season but the competition table doesn’t lie: the team unanimously tipped to finish with the wooden spoon has made it into the top six.

The Mariners’ shock 2-0 win over Perth Glory at Central Coast Stadium last night finally shook a couple of monkeys off their backs.

It was their first win at home for 330 days — the last was against Wellington Phoenix on New Year’s Eve last year.

It was also the first time they had kept a clean sheet in 37 games, stretching back to the 2014-15 season.

Most importantly, however, the three points sees them jump from ninth spot to sixth, leapfrogging Wellington, Newcastle and Western Sydney, who all have a game to play this round.

Perth went into the match as strong favourites but had no answer to Paul Okon’s men, who were quicker and far hungrier.

A 30th-minute goal from Harry Ascroft in his first starting game this season and another from Roy O’Donovan in the 63rd minute were products of what was clearly the Mariners’ best performance of the season.

Okon praised his men for their heart and commitment.

“It was a short turnaround and I was worried about how they would back up,’’ Okon said. “But they were always very positive.

“We have come a long way since I came into the club at the start of the season.

“It was great to see the fans leave here with smiles on their faces.”

With just four days between last night’s match and the game against Newcastle last Sunday, Okon opted to make three changes to freshen up his side.

Trent Buhagiar, Sam Galloway and Adam Berry all started, with Fabio Ferreira, Blake Powell and Michael Neill coming off the bench, while Ascroft came in for the suspended Liam Rose, who was sent off last week.

Glory named an unchanged line-up to the one that beat Adelaide United 3-1 last week but were forced into a late change after rightback Josh Risdon tweaked his knee during the warm up.

Shane Lowry came off the bench, moving to centre-back with Rhys Williams going from central defence to right-back for Risdon.

It got worse for the visitors 16 minutes into the game when Diego Castro suffered a hamstring injury and had to be replaced by Adam Taggart, who only recently returned from a long layoff and was expected to get only 30 minutes of action.