A stubborn rearguard action from the New Zealand Knights has effectively put paid to any Hyundai A-League play-off hopes harboured by the Central Coast Mariners this season, as the teams fought out a scoreless draw at Gosford's Bluetongue Stadium.
The result leaves the Mariners in sixth place, and heavily reliant on other results going their way for Laurie McKinna's team to have a chance of going into their final game of the campaign with more than pride to play for.
The Knights, meanwhile, confirmed themselves as wooden spoon recipients for a second successive season, but they will finish a lot closer to the pack than a year ago, thanks in no small part to the turnaround which stand-in coach Ricki Herbert has orchestrated since Christmas, since when they have picked up seven points from a possible nine.
The two they dropped came in this match, one which saw the Mariners pounding away in search of a goal more often than not, spurred on by the vast majority of the 10,637 fans who piled into the ground hoping to see the Pre-Season Cup winners keep their season alive.
But while the visitors were on the back foot for the majority of the match, they weren't overly troubled by their play-off-chasing rivals, who have failed to don their shooting boots on a few too many occasions this season, not just this match.
Adam Kwasnik was profligacy personified, particularly in the first half, when his penchant for blazing the ball well wide and high of the mark was in evidence in the tenth and 23rd minutes, these after setting his sights in the sixth minute with a first-time shot past the far post upon being picked out in yards of space in the Knights penalty area by Andre Gumprecht.
Six minutes later, the Mariners came as close as they would get to scoring in the first half, as things transpired. Matthew Osman and Stewart Petrie combined to present Mile Jedinak with a shooting chance, which the midfielder hit on the turn from the edge of the penalty area. The ball flew over Mark Paston and hit the crossbar with a resounding twang, the Knights able to clear the rebound.
The visiting defence, in which Steven O'Dor impressed, stood firm in the face of an Osman free-kick in the 21st minute, but four minutes later were undone by a delightful Bradley Porter free-kick to the far post, where Jedinak was again lurking out of sight and out of mind.
His downward header was parried by Paston, who was grateful to see Andre Gumprecht send the ball thundering over the crossbar after the visitors' attempts to clear the danger only got as far as twenty-five yards from goal.
On the half-hour, Knights' team-mates Richard Johnson and Jonas Salley clashed heads, with the Australian coming off much the worse for wear. He returned with his head swathed in bandages, but while he was off the park being treated, both Noel Spencer and Gumprecht squandered opportunities to break the deadlock in what, it must be said, was a decidedly uninspiring first forty-five minutes.
During that time, the Knights were rarely sighted as an attacking force of note. Indeed, their first effort of consequence came ten minutes before the interval, and featured a clever lob into space by Neil Emblen for Alen Marcina to chase, while the target man raced towards the far post anticipating the return cross. It duly came, but just a yard too far in front of Emblen, much to the Mariners' relief.
Their response brought the best out of Paston in the 41st minute, the goalkeeper pawing to safety an Alex Wilkinson header, following a corner delivered deep by Damien Brown. The Knights' ‘keeper was far less troubled by a tame twenty-yarder from Gumprecht on the stroke of half-time, an effort which pretty much summed up the spectacle thus far.
The second half saw the Mariners start a little slowly, so much so that it was the Knights who engineered the first opening, in the 49th minute. Salley and Darren Bazeley linked on the right, the fullback's cross falling behind its intended target, Noah Hickey. Central Coast cleared their lines, but only as far as Dean Gordon, who let loose a bristling twenty-five yarder which flew straight at Danny Vukovic.
The home team responded before the hour mark with a tame header from Petrie and another wildly inaccurate effort from Kwasnik, before a Che Bunce blunder allowed the persistent Jedinak to pounce and set up an opportunity for substitute Matthew Simon. But the newcomer was denied by the ever-vigilant Gordon, who swooped to clear.
O'Dor was next to intervene as the Knights mounted a sound rearguard action, thwarting another substitute, Jamie McMaster, as he steamed onto a 67th minute Petrie lay-off following Osman's cross.
After Leilei Gao had brought a good save out of Vukovic, low to the keeper's right, the moment on which the game hinged materialised in the 76th minute. Paul O'Grady launched the ball downfield, Scott flicked it on, and Petrie slid in to steer the sphere goalwards.
The advancing Paston got a hand on the effort, enough to take some pace off it, but not enough to stop its transit towards the Knights goal-line, the ball's crossing of which looked a mere formality.
Johnson wasn't prepared to give up that easily, however. The midfielder hurtled back and wrapped his foot around the ball mere millimetres before it fully crossed the line, and managed to clear it to safety via the inside of a post - it was a desperate piece of defending which earned the reward its instigator sought.
The debate will rage forever and a day as to whether the whole of the ball crossed the line - video evidence was inconclusive, given the angles of the various cameras weren't directly in line with the goal-line itself, but in the split second he had to make a decision, referee Ben Williams and his assistant deemed the Knights had dodged a bullet, much to the dismay of the Marinators and their heroes.
It was the home team who rode their luck twice inside the next ten minutes, as the visitors came close to stealing all three points with rare raids. Johnson, the Knights' hero of the hour-and-a-half, unleashed a vicious swerving thirty-yard volley in the 84th minute which bounced in front of Vukovic and flashed narrowly past his post.
After O'Grady had seen his shot on the turn fizz inches past the post as the Mariners piled on the pressure for the goal which would keep their season alive, the Knights hit them on the counter-attack, Johnson sending Marcina scampering clear of the offside trap with four minutes remaining.
With defenders in hot pursuit, the Canadian front-runner bore down on goal, the advancing Vukovic standing between Marcina and a third successive victory for the Knights. The striker shot, the 'keeper blocked the effort with his legs, and the Mariners fans breathed a sigh of relief, before urging their charges on for renewed efforts as the minutes ticked away on their campaign.
In the 89th minute, they came close once more. Jedinak was left all alone once again as a Spencer free-kick arrowed beyond the far post. The midfielder's header was finger-tipped by Paston, but it needed Johnson's decisive header to avert the danger with a suitable degree of certainty.
The four minutes of stoppage time saw the Mariners desperately trying to break the deadlock, with the Knights adopting “anywhere will do” tactics as Row Z of the stands became a target for their clearances. It all came down to a corner inside the last thirty seconds, which McMaster delivered onto the head of Jedinak.
But he was unable to get over the ball as he rose to head it, the sphere looping over the crossbar to the despair of the locals, for whom this scoreless draw almost certainly ends play-off hopes which have been in doubt through the Mariners' season-long struggle to score goals - just twenty-one from twenty games tells its own story.