After a 1-0 loss to the Western Sydney Wanderers on Tuesday, the Mariners are back in action tonight against Sydney FC at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium.
Alen Stajcic and his side will not have had time to dwell on their first defeat of the season, with the short turnaround meaning attentions turned to tonight’s clash almost immediately.
For Sydney, their last outing was against Wanderers in last Saturday’s derby, which finished 1-1 on a sweltering afternoon at Stadium Australia, and Friday night at Kogarah should present better conditions for football.
Stajcic has brought his full foreign contingent into the extended matchday squad for the clash, but earlier in the week was also keen to stress patience when it comes to their game time and easing them into match situations.
A special game day.
Happy Birthday Simmo! #CCMFC#SYDvCCM #WontBackDown pic.twitter.com/8iyQSFJmZO
— Central Coast Mariners (@CCMariners) January 22, 2021
“Yeah, we’re hoping [to see more],” he said.
“It takes time, they’ve been in quarantine and not played for a long time so it’s just going to take time unfortunately.”
“With a big batch of games coming up we just have to be patient and ensure we ease them into the team at the right time.”
The Mariners and Sydney had good battles last season, with this fixture in particular a close-run affair in December as the hosts prevailed 1-0 through an early goal.
In the return fixture a similar pattern followed before Sydney broke away at the end, and on Thursday in-form midfielder Josh Nisbet said that after a strong first half performance on Tuesday, the team now needs to translate that to the second 45 as well.
“I thought the first half of the game we did pretty well and did what we said we were going to,” he said.
“We looked like we were going to score and then in the second half we dropped off a little bit, so this week hopefully we can maintain the first half performance and carry it into the second half.”
Squads |
Sydney FC squad: 1.Andrew REDMAYNE (gk), 2.Patrick FLOTTMANN, 3.Ben WARLAND, 4.Alex WILKINSON (c), 5.Alex BAUMJOHANN, 6.Ryan McGOWAN, 8.Paulo RETRE, 10.Milos NINKOVIC, 11.Kosta BARBAROUSES, 12.Trent BUHAGIAR, 16.Joel KING, 17.Anthony CACERES, 18.Luke IVANOVIC, 19.Chris ZUVELA, 20.Tom HEWARD-BELLE (gk), 21.Harry VAN der SAAG, 23.Rhyan GRANT, 26.Luke BRATTAN, 27.Jordan SWIBEL, 28.Calem NIEUWENHOF, 33.Pat WOOD.
**2-4 to be omitted**
Ins: 2.Patrick FLOTTMANN (promoted), 28.Calem NIEUWENHOF (return from injury).
Outs: Nil
Unavailable: 7.Michael ZULLO (calf – 2 weeks), 9.BOBÔ (Returning to match fitness), 30.Adam PAVLESIC (GK) (indefinite – collarbone).
Central Coast Mariners squad: 1.Mark BIRIGHITTI (gk), 4.Joshua NISBET, 5.Stefan NIGRO, 6.Gianni STENSNESS, 7.Stefan JANKOVIC, 8.Oliver BOZANIC (c), 10.Daniel DESILVA, 11.Jack CLISBY, 12.Marcos UREÑA, 14.Daniel BOUMAN, 15.Kye ROWLES, 19.Matt SIMON, 20.Adam PEARCE (gk), 21.Ruon TONGYIK, 22.Michal JANOTA, 23.Dan HALL, 25.Matthew HATCH, 26.Jaden CASELLA, 29.Alou KUOL, 30.Jordan SMYLIE
**2-4 to be omitted**
Ins: 7.Stefan JANKOVIC (Out of quarantine), 22.Michal JANOTA (Out of quarantine), 23.Dan HALL (Promoted)
Outs: 3.Lewis MILLER (Not Selected)
Unavailable: Nil
Match Details |
Friday, 22 January 2021
Sydney FC v Central Coast Mariners
Netstrata Jubilee Stadium, Kogarah
Kick-Off: 7:05pm (Local)(7:05pm (AEDT))
Referee: Ben Abraham
Assistant Referee 1: Owen Goldrick
Assistant Referee 2: Greg Taylor
Fourth Official: Tim Danaskos
VAR: Alex King
TV Broadcast: Live coverage on FOX SPORTS 505 from 7:00pm (AEDT), Sky Sport 7 (New Zealand), Kayo Sports (www.kayosports.com.au) and MyFootball Live App, Live Fast and Data Free for Telstra mobile customers
Join the conversation on Twitter using the hash-tag #SYDvCCM
