By the Palm Trees – Brisbane Roar vs Central Coast Mariners

The Mariner’s chance to seal second place against Perth Glory last weekend didn’t go to plan and they now need a win against Brisbane Roar to ensure third place and remain in with a chance to take second should Western Sydney slip up against the Melbourne Heart. Everything that could go wrong for the Central Coast Mariners did in Perth but it’s hard to explain why the performance was as disappointing as it was. Perhaps it was the busy recent schedule, the long travel to Perth or the unscheduled travel delay caused by smoke in their air craft. It may even have been the debutante referee who mis-controlled the game. Regardless of all the excuses, the reality was our performance was only barely good enough to have expected a draw. We just didn’t seem to play the game with the apparent desperation of “finals football” and given recent good performances, that’s what I was expecting. There is no doubting the referee’s contribution to the result in Perth. In my opinion there were no valid penalties in the game – despite one being awarded to each team, a Perth goal was given where an offside Perth player interfered with the play and a Mariners goal was disallowed due to offside when the scorer was clearly and obviously on-side. In the end though, despite the performance of the officials, a draw was probably what we deserved. This weekend’s match remains of massive importance to the Mariners and their fans. If we win and Western Sydney does not, second place and the week off will still be ours. A win in Brisbane would ensure at least third place and with it a home final in the first week of the finals series. Anything else could see the Mariners slipping into a first week of the finals crunch match in hostile territory. Brisbane finished off winning the Premiership early but has shown no sign of reducing their intensity. Returning to the side after his umpteenth red card suspension is Besart Berisha and given he could have as few as two games remaining for the Roar, he is sure to come up a good performance. There is no need to breakdown the individual quality Brisbane have across the park, they have been showing it all year. From front to back, Brisbane has the look of a team intent on fulfilling their ambitions to collect a Champions trophy to add to their Premiers Plate. I still think we can match the Premiers and the best time to prove that would be right now. Central Coast players will have been mightily disappointed with the performance in Perth and will look to atone for that in this match with a reaction. Having control of their own destiny in terms of finishing third on the table should be more than enough motivation to ensure we see their best. With only Marcel Seip not travelling with the squad, Phil Moss will have almost a standard core of players to select from, however it won’t matter which personnel he starts because whoever he chooses will be capable of doing the job. I think this week the Central Coast reaction will see them pushing the Roar all the way. Whether we can tough out the pressure and claim the win will be decided by whether we can take our chances in what will be an arm wrestle. My prediction is either a draw or a narrow Mariners win