North Queensland Fury has grabbed a draw at Gosford Stadium this evening through a 75th minute curling corner by Robbie Fowler, or 'god' to his admirers, and the aerial presence of Daniel McBreen ... plus an arm and the woodwork. His header nullified an amzing 14th second goal by Matt Simon for the Mariners.
The links between the North Qld club and the Mariners go back to the formation of the tropical side and it was expected to be one where the apprentice (Ferguson) may get up over the master (McKinna) but the wild card was the loss by the Fury of Ufuk Talay (suspension) and Shane Stefanutto (long term injury) and the struggle by the Mariners to find goal-scoring form (McKinna dropping Nik Mrdja and moving Dylan Macallister to the bench).
The re-inclusion of Simon proved telling within 14 seconds of kick-off then the big striker robbed John Tambouras of the ball and slid it past Paul Henderson. This was just 5 touches after the start, with Chris Tadrosse getting himself into 'a corner' and passing lazily back to open up the opportunity.
The Mariner’s 'keeper Danny Vukovic had to dive to his left in the 26th minute to force a header from Daniel McBreen of an early ball from Robbie Middleby for a corner, and the Fury started to show glimpses.
Both sides were not creating creating clear chances, and were left with speculators to show for their efforts. The best chance of the half went to Brad Porter who could only pull off a weak header in the 39th minute from a first time cross from the left by an overlapping Dean Heffernan.
It was the Mariners who had the ball in the net again, after the break, when Bradley Porter sent a pin-point early cross from the left to Adam Kwasnik on the run down the middle, but Kwasnik, recalled to the starting line-up, was rightly judged off-side.
The Mariners started to show some frustration that they could not put the Fury to the sword but instead had allowed them back in to the game.
Matt Simon made a great run down the left in the 83rd minute and his ball into Nigel Boogard deserved better that the show wide that resulted. It looked like the Mariners may yet regain their lead, but it was not to be.
"We didn’t deserve to win. You get gutted when you deserve to win and you don’t, but in the second half we knew they’d play the long ball and put us under pressure, which they did, and out intensity dropped off,” said Mariners Football Manager Lawrie McKinna. "We should have been good enough to go on and win the game 2 or 3-nil. That’s being a professional sportsman, going out and doing your job, doing better than the other team and winning," McKinna said.
Fury Coach Ian Ferguson praised his troops for their commitment to fight back and claim the competition on the road, but was equally disappointed in what he termed a schoolboy error to let Simon score. "I felt we were the better team in the second half, the movement was good and we kept the ball well and put the Mariners under pressure and had three or four chances. I’m absolutely delighted", Ferguson said. "We’ve got to stop putting ourselves under pressure and behind the eight ball and that’s the biggest disappointment and I’d love to be in a position where we’re actually one or two nil up at half time instead of having to say to the boys we’re still in it but credit to these boys- they’re absolutely fantastic and they give their all."