Sydney FC has kept its titles hopes alive with a thrilling 5-4 over league leaders the Central Coast Mariners in the match of the season in front of a record crowd of 17,541 at Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium on Saturday night.
The Central Coast was all over Sydney early on in the rain-deferred round 15 match, streaking out to a 2-0 lead with goals to Mile Jedinak and John Aloisi before goalkeeper Danny Vukovic was sent from the field for handling the ball outside the area.
Sydney took advantage of the undermanned Mariners to bring the score back to 2-2 through goals to Iain Fyfe and Terry McFlynn before the home side went ahead 3-2 via a Greg Owens penalty midway through the second half.
The drama continued as Sydney's bench players Adam Biddle and Brendon Santalab put the visitors in front 4-3 before Adam Kwasnik struck for the Mariners to make it 4-4 late in the match.
But a penalty at the death to Ufuk Talay handed Sydney a heart-stopping win in a simply unbelievable match.
The win puts Sydney into the top four for the first time this season, while the Mariners maintain top spot heading into the Christmas break.
"It was a fantastic game of football," said Sydney coach John Kosmina after the match. "Whatever way you look at it, it was an unbelievable game of football. I haven't been involved in a match like that. You got nine goals, a record crowd at the ground and the quality of the football was superb."
Meanwhile Mariners coach John Kosmina was philosophical after the dramatic loss.
"Football is a funny game and a cruel game sometimes and we have to deal with it," he said.
The Mariners got a perfect start with a goal in just the third minute of play after Jedinak's viscous free kick from 25 metres out took a slight deflection off Sydney midfielder Robbie Middleby and curled past Sydney keeper Ivan Necevski.
Sasho Petrovski should have doubled the Mariners' lead just three minutes later after Tom Pondeljak's cross presented the former Sydney striker with a golden opportunity, but he could only sweep it wide from 10 yards out right in front.
The Mariners didn't have to wait long before they were 2-0 in front when Aloisi showed his class by steering home a goal at the near post with his right foot from another pinpoint cross from Pondeljak in the 15th minute.
With the Mariners well in control, the game was turned on its head in the 16th minute when Vukovic was red carded after he handled the ball outside the area. With Sydney striker Alex Brosque denied a goal-scoring opportunity, referee Matthew Breeze had no option but to send the Mariners keeper from the field.
Petrovski was sacrificed as reserve glovesman Matthew Trott was brought on and he was forced into action almost immediately producing a diving save to deny a header from Iain Fyfe.
Fyfe made it 2-1 just after the half-hour mark when he leapt high at the back post from a Talay corner to sneak the ball past Trott and into the corner of the net.
Sydney was back on level terms just four minutes after the break when Terry McFlynn fired home after Trott had produced a great save to parry Tony Popovic's header from a corner. But the ball fell to McFlynn who slammed the ball into the roof of the net from three yards out.
Aloisi, who had worked hard all game, was forced to leave the field with a knee injury on the hour mark, with local junior Matt Simon coming on.
The lanky striker made an immediate impact when he earned a penalty after some poor defending from Fyfe allowed him to streak inside the box where Popovic brought him down. Owens slotted the ball into the corner of the net to put the Mariners in front 3-2.
With the game being played at a breakneck pace, Sydney was back on level terms in the 71st minute when Biddle, who replaced Nikolas Tsattalios, got the better of Dean Heffernan and nutmegged Trott from a one-on-one situation.
Sydney hit the lead for the first time in the match in the 76th minute when Santalab, who had just come on for Michael Bridges, fired home a clean volley after from 15 out after the Mariners failed to clear a Steve Corica cross.
Trott kept the Mariners in the match with a fantastic diving save to deny Talay's curling free kick from 25m out and a stabbed shot from Corica from point-blank range. His endeavour was rewarded when Adam Kwasnik steered the ball past to Necevski to make it 4-4 and send the huge home crowd into raptures.
But the drama wasn't over as Kwasnik turned from hero to villain after he used his hand to stop Santalab's goal-bound header and gave Sydney a penalty right on full-time. Talay made no mistake to beat Trott and hand Sydney a thrilling win.
[Note : Dean Heffernan was taken off late in the game after a tackle in which he received a suspected broken leg, leaving the Mariners with only 8 players on the field at full time as all subs had been used up - Ed]