Central Coast Mariners scored their first win of the Hyundai A-League season at North Harbour Stadium on September 28, downing the New Zealand Knights 1-0 in a dour encounter which only sprung to life in the last ten minutes.
During this rousing finale, the home team had two players - Che Bunce and Gregory Duruz - sent off, the former’s professional foul on Mariners’ new signing Damian Mori opening the door for Adam Kwasnik to score the game’s only goal from the penalty spot five minutes from the end.
Until these incidents, a match between teams who had scored just one goal apiece in their five A-League games to date this season looked destined to conclude as a scoreless draw, a result fully befitting of another uninspiring spectacle, this one riddled with hit and hope football aplenty.
It was obvious early on in the piece that these were two teams desperately short of confidence in and around the penalty area, and ensuring the avoidance of defeat held greater interest than the more profound and memorable achievement that is winning.
As a result, chances were few and far between, with the home team, led from the front by defender Neil Emblen, taking up the onus which was on them to raise the hopes of the 1,632 faithful every so often.
An eighth minute scare in the Knights penalty area, when the Mariners’ Jamie McMaster burst through after a one-two with Mori, was thwarted by the alertness of Michael Turnbull, one of the few tasks the goalkeeper had to accomplish in the entire match, which is as much a measure of the Knights’ miserly defensive strategy as it is the Mariners’ shot-shy attacking thrusts.
The Knights responded to this by going close in the thirteenth minute. A poor clearance by the Mariners rearguard was pounced on by Duruz, whose cross found the head of Malik Buari.
The only Knights player to score a goal this season, later to be substituted through injury, directed a downward header towards the target which bounced up so high that Mariners goalkeeper Danny Vukovic had the task of pawing it to safety off the head of Dani Rodrigues as the striker looked to turn it home from close range.
Five minutes later, the locals employed route one football, Turnbull’s hoisted clearance flicked on by Buari to Rodrigues, whose twenty yard volley warmed the gloves of Vukovic, later to deny Emblen in similar fashion as his twenty-five yard thunderbolt of a free-kick careered past the defensive wall at a great rate of knots in the 36th minute.
Four minutes prior, Turnbull had been called into action after McMaster’s through ball had been flicked on by Kwasnik into the path of Mori, darting in behind him. The striker’s shot on the turn was blocked at point-blank range by the goalkeeper, with Kwasnik unable to capitalise on the rebound.
The striker was soon in action again, having been gifted possession by Sime Kovacevic on the edge of the Knights’ penalty area. Noel Spencer was afforded a shooting opportunity, but dragged his effort wide of the mark, eight minutes before McMaster blazed over the bar from the edge of the penalty area, this on the stroke of half-time.
This effort was the culmination of a smart counter-attack featuring Spencer, Tony Vidmar and Mori, the Knights having been like bees round a honey-pot in search of a goal just seconds earlier.
Emblen’s deft pass saw Noah Hickey felled by Matthew Osman just outside the penalty area, affording the Knights’ best-performed player in this match another shooting chance from a set-piece situation, a facet of the game which, it must be said, is far from a strength where the Knights are concerned. Emblen let fly on this occasion, his effort flashing past the far post with Vukovic at full stretch.
If anybody thought the first half had been a generally uninspiring spectacle, it was positively riveting compared what materialised during the bulk of the second spell. Passages of quality football were virtually non-existent, as a disjointed, error-ridden stop-start affair ground towards its conclusion.
Save for a Stewart Petrie free-kick, which grazed the top of the crossbar on the hour, a timely challenge by Alex Wilkinson on Rodrigues as the striker looked to shoot six minutes later, and a concerted 73rd minute Knights attack which culminated in Scot Gemmill sending a twenty-five yarder flashing past Vukovic’s left-hand upright by not a lot at all, the contest plumbed depths of mediocrity previously thought impossible to reach - the beautiful game this most definitely was not!!
All of a sudden, it exploded in the 83rd minute, the catalyst a woeful back-pass from Darren Bazeley onto which Mori pounced in the blink of an eye and charged towards the penalty area, Turnbull the lone obstacle in his vision.
Another materialised abaft, Bunce lunging at the striker from behind and felling him as he prepared to shoot from around the eighteen yard line. Mori tumbled into the penalty area, and referee Peter O’Leary briefly paused before pointing to the spot, then confirming his decision with his assistant after irate Knights players vented their fury over claims that the offence occurred outside the penalty area.
The offence was a professional foul, however, and Bunce was duly shown the red card. Kwasnik sent Turnbull the wrong way from the penalty spot to put the Mariners in front with five minutes to go.
As the Knights reorganised their ranks, a Spencer through ball straight from the kick-off found the goalscorer careering down the right flank before cutting into the penalty area.
A low cross intended for Mori was under-struck, however, and as the home team scrambled the ball to safety, arguably the most prolific marksman in senior level Australian soccer over the past decade gave Kwasnik both barrels over his wastefulness.
The Knights had more pressing matters to concern themselves with, however, as in the 88th minute, Duruz and Osman went up for a heading duel, the local player leading with the elbow right in front of the dug-outs. The Mariners’ player crumpled to the ground, and another brief gathering of the clans ensued, this time with Knights manager Paul Nevin highly prominent in the war of words and pointing of fingers.
When the dust had settled, Duruz was trudging towards the tunnel, and the Knights were down to nine men with just moments still to play. Despite their reduced numbers, they pressed gamely for an equaliser, Emblen going closest of all when meeting a Richard Johnson cross with a header which hit the roof of the net in stoppage time.
The Mariners held on, however, their first win - and clean sheet - of the season seeing them climb to an overnight fifth placing. For the Knights, however, a fourth successive defeat could see them back in the position with which they are most familiar come the conclusion of this sixth round.