Sydney FC youngsters fire champions past Central Coast Mariners

Sydney FC have bounced back from their heavy Asian Champions League loss with a 3-0 victory over Central Coast.

Sydney FC’s Marco Tilio, left, is embraced by Rhyan Grant after scoring the fastest debut goal in A-League history. Picture: AAP

Sydney FC have bounced back from their heavy Asian Champions League loss with a 3-0 victory over Central Coast in Gosford.

The Sky Blues were thumped 4-0 by Yokohama F. Marinos just four days ago, but managed to put away a defiant Mariners in the dying minutes at Central Coast Stadium in front of a crowd of 5376.

Although the teams are separated by 30 points on the A-League ladder, the game was tense at 1-0 until the 89th minute, when Marco Tilio and then Harry Van Der Saag scored their first goals to put the result to bed.

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The brace of goals broke an 80-minute deadlock after Milos Ninkovic had scored the opener following a hopeful cross into the box in the ninth minute.

Tilio, 18, emerged off the bench in the 88th minute and scored with a classy finish from inside the box just 1 minute and 15 seconds after coming on, a record for the fastest debut goal in the A-League.

Not content with his own goal, he then teed up fellow youngster Van der Saag.

Van der Saag’s strike could be a contender for goal of the season, as he banged the ball into the top corner from the edge of the box.

Tilio was a star of Sydney’s youth production line, including scoring two goals in a dominant grand final win in the National Youth League (NYL) this season.

He was delighted with getting his chance in the A-League.

“I’m quite ecstatic. Obviously I’ve been working hard towards this.

“Today was my chance and I thought I took it so I’m very happy,” he told Fox Sports

The biggest moment of the game came just before halftime as VAR overturned a Mariners goal that would have been the first for Gianni Stensness. The Mariners were lucky to get the free kick in the lead-up, but Stensness’s header was denied soon after, as Eunsun Kim blocked Alex Wilkinson from an offside position.

It was a contentious moment that split opinion. Although technically correct, it was deemed harsh by angry Mariners fans.

Central Coast coach Alen Stajcic was furious while returning to the sheds at halftime and was filmed in a tense conversation with referee Chris Beath in the tunnel.

He then spoke to Fox Sports and, when asked if it was the correct decision, he said: “No, no chance. They said the blocker was offside. I haven’t seen a blocker called for offside all season. As long as they stick with that for the next 100 games of A-League, we’ll be right.”

The Mariners put up a tough fight against the A-League champions, taking the game down to the wire with a flurry of activity in the second half. Meanwhile, Sydney’s Paulo Retre will cop a suspension for his fifth yellow card of the season for disrupting a free kick in the 21st minute. He will miss next week’s derby with Western Sydney, which was rescheduled from round 18 due to poor weather.

AAP/FOX SPORTS