Central Coast Mariners scored three goals in 18 minutes to salvage the game with an amazing 3-3 come-back draw against Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday night.
With the semi-final games in the Asian Champions League coming up Adelaide City elected to play an unchanged starting line-up from that which stunned the injury blighted Jets last weekend. The Mariners, having at last gained points last week off the Glory consistent with their solid form so far this season, brought were forced to restructure with the late loss of John Hutchinson to a hip injury.
On a chilly October night the Coast started on the front foot, with Matt Simon making one of his emerging trademark surging runs in the 2nd minute, with his shot at the end deflected for a corner. From the corner Saso Petrovski got a header on a Matt Osman lob but Adelaide 'keeper Eugene Galekovic had it well covered.
Almost against the run of play the Red's live-wire Cristiano chased a ball into the Mariners penalty area and as defender Pedj Bojic made a forceful clearance that also halted the Brasilian's run, ACT referee Ben Williams inexplicably pointed to the spot. Adelaide captain Travis Dodd sent young Coast 'keeper Andrew Redmayne the wrong way. 1-0
Adelaide lifted noticebaly with fortune favouring them, and Dodd drew a save out of Redmayne five minutes later. It was a small miscalculation by the Young Soccero 'keeper that allowed a ball from a well-taken Paul Reid corner on the left to reach Robert Cornthwaite. His header moved it along to 2-0 and the Coast back on their heels.
The Mariners worked their way back into the game however and it was a purple patch by Galekovic that kept the lead. In the 31st minute Adrian Caceres, whose influence had taken time to show, shot from 25m out on the left only to see the Adelaide custodian tip the shot over the crossbar.
Travis Dodd showed that the Reds were not at all spent, with a surging, swirving run on the right, but his firm angled shot was steered wide by the finger tips of Redmayne.
Caceres twice was denied again by Galekovic, when he pulled down a loose ball in the area and shot at the keeper, and just before the break he had a shot from the left palmed wide.
After the break disaster struck for the visitors as a loose ball in the Mariners area, from a corner, bounced off Ognenovski through a crowd and Cristiano toe-poked it into the net. 3-0
One would have thought that was it, but the football is round and perhaps through Adelaide dropping off to conserve themselves, or more specifically through sheer doggedness of the Mariners (ironically smarting from a junk-yard do jibe midweek) the game's complexion was to change as the half wore on.
Following an encouraging shot from Saso Petovski (encouraging for it occuring rather than it's accuracy) in the 65th minute, Matt Simon was scythed down inside just inside the area near the goaline on the left by the usually clinical Angelo Costanzo. Mile Jedinak stepped up to take it and had no trouble netting. 3-1
In the 75th minute Jedinak received the ball, and with no options but a tempting pathway to goal he blasted a shot past the outstretched fingers of the diving Red's 'keeper. Suddenly it as 3-2 and the small band of Mariners travelling fans were now audible as the Red's went into their shell.
In the 84th minute Nigel Boogard sent a long ball through from the centre circle that Galekovic came out for, but Matt Simon was quicker, slowing and steadying the ball with his left and then steered it with his right back at at angle and into the far side of the goal.
"I'm extremely disappointed. We certainly threw away two points tonight," the Reds coach Aurelio Vidmar said.
The comeback for the visitors was completed with the draw, as both teams moved closer, by only just the one point, to the leading duo.
Adelaide coach, Aurelio Vidmar, stated afterwards, "I can’t fault the players on the first 45 minutes, I thought minutes, I thought it was some of the best football we've played all year. We just got a bit lazy in that last 30 minutes when we went 3-nil up and it just fell apart."
Vidmar refused to be drawn into the suggestion that players may have had an eye on Wednesday's ACL Semi Final against Bunyodkor FC (formerly Kuruvchi).
"If there was any thoughts on Wednesday night, it would have started at the beginning of the game," Vidmar said.
"We just couldn't keep up with the intensity in the second half. A lot of credit to the Central Coast, they certainly know how to fight and that's certainly what their whole game is all about. They never give up, they never lie down and we copped it."
Lawrie McKinna, Mariners coach, took the view that, "After their penalty they were on the front foot and credit to them, they pumped us, then we gave away a bad second goal and it took us about ten or fifteen minutes to come back into the game."
"To lose another goal early in the second half – it could have been four or five after that, but credit must go to the team for the way they played", he added.