Central Coast Mariners 0 Wellington Phoenix 2 (Krishna 49’ & Watson 56’)
The Run Down
The Wellington Phoenix have left Canberra’s GIO Stadium with all three points thanks to goals by Roy Krishna and Hamish Watson.
It was a cagey first half between the Central Coast Mariners and Wellington Phoenix that saw neither side break the deadlock but that’s not to say there weren’t chances.
Both ends saw several attacks on goal with the stand out performer, Mariners’ keeper Paul Izzo who made a number of impressive saves on his line.
At the other end of the pitch Roy O’Donovan linked up with the likes of Fabio Ferreira and Connor Pain to threaten the Phoenix net but the travelling side were always on hand to deflect the danger.
The sides went into the break 0-0 but it was the away team who broke the deadlock in the nation’s capital.
Krishna earned man of the match plaudits who played a hand in both goals, scoring the first and assisting the second for Watson.
For the Central Coast Mariners a big match looms next week in the form of an #F3Derby at Newcastle’s Hunter Stadium.
Goals
49’ KRISHNA GOAL: The speed of Roy Krishna broke the deadlock at GIO Stadium, the pacey striker did enough to find himself with nothing but an open net to fire home from close range.
56’ WATSON GOAL: It was Krishna again who was in the thick of the action, this time he provided an assist to Hamish Watson who finished from close range.
Paolo in the press
“That’s not the performance we were after, we’re certainly disappointed but we will go home, have a look at it and see exactly where we went good, work on it and hopefully learn from it,” Okon said.
“Our next match is the #F3Derby our full focus is on that now, another important game.
“We were slow out of the blocks, we didn’t have the possession we wanted to have and we didn’t really move and offer support when we had the ball which made it easier for Wellington to press us and we turned over the ball far too cheaply in that first half.
“You never want to lose a player after 25 minutes, [Scott Galloway] it’s nothing serious but we probably won’t know until it settles down over the next 48 hours.
“We had plenty of support travel down from the Central Coast so I am a little bit sad that we weren’t able to send them home with a smile on their face.
“When we moved the ball and when we executed what we work on and what we speak about before the game I thought we looked dangerous. It wasn’t that often in the first half but in the second half we had chances to sneak a goal and that probably would have given us a different type of ending to the game but it wasn’t to be. Wellington fully deserve their victory.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Roy Krishna who is a very dangerous attacker but we probably didn’t defend how we needed to in those situations which is a big reason why Wellington scored two goals.
“That’s probably our worst performance of the season so far, certainly that first half and tonight wasn’t at the level we expected, it needs to be better next week.
“Connor is a threat, he gives us that penetration when we’re able to break lines. This is his sixth game this season and I don’t think Connor would be able to remember when he put six A-League games together so it’s a long road, he’s still not at the level of fitness to be at the level we want for 90 minutes. He’s certainly working hard and hopefully after a few more weeks he should get to that level of fitness that’s required,” Okon said.
Central Coast Mariners: 20.Paul IZZO (gk), 2.Storm ROUX, 3.Scott GALLOWAY (21.Michael NEILL 24’) 22.Jake McGING, 19.Jacques FATY, 6.Blake POWELL (14.Liam ROSE 63’) ,7.Fabio FERREIRA (13.Trent BUHAGIAR 71’), 9.Roy O’DONOVAN, 10.Mickael TAVARES, 11.Connor PAIN
Unused substitutes: 1.Ivan NECEVSKI (gk) & 17.Josh BINGHAM
Yellow cards: Montgomery 66’
Wellington Phoenix: 20.Lewis ITALIANO, 2.Jacob TRATT, 4.Rolieny BONEVACIA, 5.Ryan LOWRY, 7.Gui FINKLER (14.Alex RUFER 86’), 8.Alex RODRIGUEZ, 11.Hamish WATSON (18.Benjamin LITFIN 88’), 13.Marco ROSSI, 17.Vince LIA (c), 21.Roy KRISHNA, 23.Matthew RIDENTON.
Unused Substitutes: 30.Oliver SAIL (gk), 6.Dylan FOX, 24.Logan ROGERSON
Yellow cards: Bonevacia 45’ & Lia 94’
Saturday Novemberr 12, 2016
GIO Stadium, Canberra
Central Coast Mariners vs. Wellington Phoenix
Attendance: 5497
