During Saturday’s #F3Derby Central Coast Mariners’ skipper Nick Montgomery produced one of the most inspiring individual performances you will see, we caught up with him after Tuesday’s training session.
“I’m an experienced player, I’m a leader and I’m the captain of this team and to be honest when we went down to 10 men I said to the likes of Rosey and Roy we’ve got to lift this now and we’re more than capable of getting a result,” Montgomery said.
“The young boys have gotten physically and mentally stronger this season, last season we would have collapsed and lost the game so I’m so proud of them and to get a point was a just reward but on another day I think even with 10 men we deserved the win but it wasn’t meant to be.”
“Newcastle are a good team, people forget that if they had of won that they would have gone top of the table.”
“With 10 men it’s easy to sit back and take a 0-0 but that’s not our mentality we went out and attacked, created numerous opportunities to score.”
“To concede from a corner so late on a lot of teams would have thrown the towel in there but we didn’t we carried on pushing forward.”
“We went on a training camp before the season and it was all about mental strength, toughness and I think the boys will look back on that now.”
“There was no disappointment in the dressing room at half time, Tony and Hutch are full of belief in the boys and the boys believe in themselves and you can see that on the pitch.”
“People have said to me after watching the game you couldn’t see that we were a man down which is a huge compliment because that shows the boys are working hard on and off the ball.”
“We’ve got a massive test on Thursday against, without a doubt the best team in the league with some of the best players in the league but we will go there full of confidence, the same way we go everywhere else and give them a good game.”
“People are starting to take notice now, everyone is enjoying the way we are playing, anyone that watched the game on Saturday can see that there’s something good going on at the Mariners.”
“We’re five games in, we should have more points on the board but it’s only a matter of time before the points start coming and we start climbing that table.”
“This season is a different mentality, we’re positive, the culture of the Mariners has been here since the club started and it’s never been better.”
