BY THE PALM TREES | Round Two Preview

Round one was a great start to the Central Coast Mariners in so many ways. A first up win completed in the style the team did it was just what the doctor ordered to ignite the interest of football fans on the coast. A crowd of just over 8000 enjoyed a night full of excitement and quality entertainment and heading home with a smile on their faces after watching their team show plenty of attacking intent.

The Yellow and Navy were quality across the park employing a pressing game whenever they didn’t have the ball. None were better than Anthony Caceres who delivered the quality he has always threatened to show since his arrival in the A-League. Virtually untouchable throughout the game his elegant style was one of the many highlights. Roy O’Donovan found his first of hopefully many goals while Fabio Ferreira terrorised the Perth defence from start to finish and smashed a pair of super penalties into the roof of the net. Mitch Austin made an excellent debut getting behind his defender at will then sending in quality crosses and was unlucky not to have a goal of his own. Captain Nick Montgomery was his normal machine like self – getting through an incredible amount of work and our relatively inexperienced back four gave few opportunities to their opponents. Liam Reddy made quality saves when they were required but with a bit more luck on our side we could have scored six instead of three on the night and the Glory’s third goal was scored almost with the last kick of the game.

Aside from the obvious attacking game plan hatched by Tony Walmsley the two things which caught my eye were the intensity with which all of our players worked to win the ball back when it was lost and the length of time (almost the full 90 minutes) their fitness allowed them to continue to do this. Perth were never allowed any comfortable possession and as a result of the pressure we put them under they were often reduced to hurried clearances and poor quality passes. It’s a credit to pre-season preparations from the coaching staff that the team were able to deliver such a performance and the confidence to be gained from this first up victory will be immeasurably positive to our youthful side.

Brisbane shot to the top of the table after round one (albeit on goal difference) with their away win over Western Sydney and looked a pretty good side in doing it. Western Sydney will however be mightily disappointed with the way they conceded all of the Roar goals. The first was via a simple defensive mistake and the other two came from poor set piece defending. Brisbane’s set piece deliveries from new Spanish import “Corona” were high quality and he showed in his general play he will be a danger player for the Roar this season, while Jamie McLaren provided good finishing capitalising on poor defence for his brace.

It’s a long time since I have seen as much media interest around the Central Coast Mariners this week, perhaps since the week we won the championship. Tony Walmsley has been covered in any number of news articles and interviews as have a number of the players. At the same time the announcement of two new corporate partners coming on board with the club has created real buzz around the Mariners leading into this match.

Aside from performing well on the pitch last week the Mariners are showing great form off the pitch. Saturday’s match day activity started with a pre-match function where coach Walmsley, John Hutchinson and Strength and Conditioning coach Brice Johnson spoke to the fans in the lead up to kick-off. This weekend fans at away day fan functions at two venues on the Central Coast are expecting direct interaction with the travelling squad via a three way video question and answer session with the Manager. These are just a couple of the new and innovative ways the club is engaging the fans and they are set to become regular features of home and away matches as the clubs reconnection with the community continues.

The Mariners have not fared well in matches played in Brisbane in recent years but will go there this time with very few players having bad memories and the team full of confidence in their own game plan and nothing to lose.

I think we’ll see a few goals scored in this encounter and I’m predicting an upset with the Mariners taking the points in an exciting match up. Mariners by 1

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