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Can the Mariners’ Young Guns fire again in the Asian Champions League tonight?

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Central Coast Mariners fans were treated to the clubs second ever win in the Asian Champions League when they took on Guizhou Renhe at Bluetongue last Wednesday. A small but loud crowd really enjoyed not only the result, but the dominant display their team put on.

To me, the 2-1 score-line was not a true reflection of the performance of the locals, who with some better finishing could have had at least another two goals. At the same time, against the run of play, the visitors managed to jag a Mariners own goal from a dangerously placed free kick swung in by one of their highly paid stars, which made the score more flattering for the visitors than they deserved.

It was a great opportunity to enjoy watching a host of high quality star players in the Guizhou line-up, who similar to our other ACL opponents have individuals whose salaries would likely dwarf the salaries of the entire Mariner’s roster.

Credit must go to Guizhou Renhe’s club for reportedly purchasing 500 tickets to the match and distributing those, along with shirts and scarves, among Sydney based Chinese university students. They also provided buses to bring their crowd to Gosford and the Guizhou fans added some excellent colour and atmosphere to a weather affected home crowd.

Pedj Bojic opened the scoring for the Mariners early in the second half and after Guizhou scored a lucky equaliser in around the 70th minute, Trent Sainsbury opened his account for the Yellow and Navy by heading home a superb Michael McGlinchey cross late in the game to take the points for Mariners.

Placed second on the ACL Group H table, the Mariners have kept their destiny in their own hands as they headed off to China for the reverse leg of this fixture in China. With Japanese side Kashiwa Reysol flying high at the top of the table after disposing of Suwon Bluewings in Korea, 6-2, the Mariners are in good shape to qualify for the knock out stages for the first time in their history.

Balancing the A-League finals (next Sunday) with tonight’s ACL fixture is no easy task for Graham Arnold and it is believed seven of his first team stars have been left behind to prepare the home final against Melbourne Victory. A number of young stars have travelled in their place and after acquitting themselves well in the Melbourne Heart home match and the Kashiwa ACL match in Japan recently they should be well prepared to do the required job in China.

With the amount of travel and everything else required when playing away games in China, this match will be a tough assignment for the young Mariners. Guizhou will be a different team in their own home town, although watching their biggest star, Musimovic limp around for the last 10 minutes on Wednesday night was an encouraging sign for us.

I’d like to think the Mariners have a big chance to steal the points in this one but realistically I think it’s more likely our young guns can walk out with a share of the points. Given Kashiwa are likely to take care of Suwon in Japan in their return fixture, this would ensure the Central Coast maintain their second place in Group H with just two matches remaining.

My prediction is a hard fought away draw, possibly nil all, and plenty to admire about the way our young guns achieve it.

About Erin Morrow (106 Articles)
Football fanatic and amateur analyst. An over 35′s player and sometimes coach. He does the occasional refereeing. Passionate Central Coast Mariners foundation member. Follow on Twitter: @Erin_Mariner