Gunshy Sydney FC’s trophy hopes fade with draw against Mariners

Sydney FC have dropped points to a lowly team for the second successive week.

Adam le Fondre of Sydney scores from the penalty spot against Central Coast Mariners at Leichhardt Oval yesterday. Picture: AAP

When you give away five points to the two worst teams in the competition in successive weeks, it doesn’t augur well for your hopes of a trophy.

That’s the position Sydney FC find themselves in after their 1-1 draw with cellar dwellers Central Coast at Leichhardt Oval yesterday left them all but out of contention to claim a hat-trick of Premiers Plates.

With leaders Perth Glory thumping Brisbane Roar 4-0 on Saturday night, the Sky Blues needed to beat the team that have managed just one win this season, but were left red-faced after squandering myriad chances in the final 15 minutes.

Coupled with last week’s shock loss to second last Brisbane Roar, it is a result that sees them slip 10 points behind the Glory with eight rounds left in the regular season. They also missed a great chance to leapfrog Melbourne Victory into second spot.

While Sydney’s spot in the finals is assured, they had their sights set on claiming a third first-past-the-post title but that now looks a forlorn hope.

Sydney FC coach Steve Corica lamented the fact they were so wasteful in front of goal.

“I was very happy with the performance,” he said. “We dominated all the game, had plenty of chances and I think the Mariners hardly tested our defence. It was just in front of goal which let us down. There were great opportunities to score, one on ones, we hit the post … there was no lack of trying, it was just the finishing touch.”

Corica said he hasn’t given up on the Premiers Plate: “We never give up. There’s eight games to go. If Perth keep winning it makes it hard, but we will go to the end.”

Mariners coach Mike Mulvey believes his side can build on the result in the final eight games.

Sydney dominated most of the game but were still made to work hard by a Mariners outfit that fought for every centimetre and put their bodies on the line.

They led through Aiden O’Neill’s first-half goal but a 75th minute goal from the penalty spot from Adam le Fondre, his 13th goal of the season, set the scene for a nervous final 15 minutes.

The home side were their own worst enemy with their finishing in front of goal becoming almost comical in the final 10 minutes.

Given the way Sydney started in the opening 20 minutes the last thing they would have expected was to go to the break a goal down.

Central Coast were hanging on grimly and their cause wasn’t helped when Tommy Oar had to be replaced just 13 minutes into the game when he hyper extended his knee in a collision with Alex Wilkinson. Fears of an ACL injury were eventually allayed.

Sydney almost opened the scoring soon after when Rhyan Grant’s cross found Brandon O’Neill, whose powerful header was pushed away by goalkeeper Ben Kennedy at full stretch.

Just three minutes later Milos Ninkovic produced some lovely work on the edge of the box before firing a thunderous effort that crashed against the right post.

The ball rebounded to him and he tried his luck with a first-time left-footed effort that sailed just wide of the other post.

Having managed to hold on, the Mariners gained some confidence and looked decent when they got forward in transition.

Matt Millar, who replaced Oar, put a header over the bar from a corner in the 22nd minute.

At this stage, the Sky Blues were not finding as much space in the final third and seemed to lack cohesion. New signing Gucci was having trouble finding any chemistry with le Fondre.

At the other end, the Mariners won a couple of corners and it was from one of them that they took a shock lead. The ball came from the right and the Sydney defence did not deal with it. The ball fell to O’Neill, who caressed his shot inside the right post.

The test for the Mariners was to see if they could hold on to their lead given they had led in three of their previous five games only to lose them all.

Sydney totally dominated possession in the second half but were again very pedestrian in the last third, where they ran out of ideas on how to break down the resilient Mariners defence.