Brisbane Roar have continued their 'hoodoo' over the Central Coast Mariners with a 2-0 win through taking their chances, in rare sunshine at Gosford in front of 10,217 fans. The stats clashed - Mariners unbeaten in 15 games, and Brisbane only being beaten by the Mariners 4 times in 7 seasons, and no times at Gosford. The latter stat came out ahead as the orange over yellow hoodoo continues. The Mariners were forced to make several changes to the team that last took to the field against Adelaide United a fortnight ago. Mat Ryan, Mustafa Amini and Oliver Bozanic were all unavailable due to Australian U23 commitments, and John Hutchinson was suspended after accruing his fifth yellow of the campaign. Justin Pasfield, Adrian Pellegrino and Tomas Rogic came into the match day squad. Brisbane's Ange Postecoglou had players out, notably Mitch Nicholls, but he had striker Besart Berisha back, and their well-rehearsed formation told. The Mariners midfield looked like it had just met, with most below par and a lack of a killer punch up front. Matt Smith made Bernie Ibini-Isei look ordinary. Whether English striker John Sutton when match fit will be an answer or NYL goal-ace Mitchell Duke shorter-term may be a key to the finals. Five minutes in Erik Paartalu was on hand to blast home the first goal. Mat Smith played the ball inside to Thomas Broich who picked out former Mariner Nick Fitzgerald free down the left. He cut inside and the cross took an unfortunate deflection off Alex Wilkinson's boot and ran out to Broich and Paartalu surging through un-impeded. The big defensive midfielder gave Mariner's keeper Justin Pasfield no chance with a piledriver from 30m. 0-1 The Coast slowly picked up their play and stopped giving ball away, creating some chances but both Troy Hearfield and Daniel McBreen butchered too many of them. The second goal came late in the first half. With the Mariners drawn out to the left, Massimo Murdocca turned inside and pushed the ball to Berisha Berisha. Josh Rose had come across to try to cover but the striker turned him just outside the area and beat a slow to respond Justin Pasfield in the Central Coast goal. 0-2 With a changed formation after the break the home side were able to stamp their authority more on the game but not create any rolled-gold chances. The other notable points from the game were the bizarre performance of referee Kris Griffiths Jones, not appreciated by the usually polite Gosford crowd, and the even more bizarre antics of Besart Berisha, from lying like he had been shot on the pitch in the area, not once but twice, to an after game dust up with his team-mate James Myer. "I was really pleased with the way we played tonight, we stuck to our guns and I'm really pleased that we won the game by playing our football," Ange Postecoglou said. "We really worked hard to force them back and we had a bit more focus and purpose in the front third of the pitch. We scored two good goals and I think we could have had more on the night." Mariners coach Graham Arnold was surprisingly upbeat after the game, after a disappointing showing for the home fan, "As I said to the boys after the game, it's their first loss in 16 games and they've been fantastic," Arnold said. "You've got to lose at some time – we only fell 20 short of Brisbane but that's okay. So it's one game, the boys have been fantastic". He added, "With a bit of luck we could of got on the score sheet at 2-1 and then it might have been a much more different game then. But overall again I was extremely proud. We got on with it and we look forward to next week."