The Central Coast Mariners youth team recovered from an early one nil deficit through a Josh Bingham double to record a 2-1 victory over Adelaide United youth at the Central Coast Mariners Centre of Excellence.
Adelaide’s Anthony Costa breached the Mariners backline in the third minute to slot home a one on one opportunity to open the scoring and put his side up 1-0.
The goal wasn’t enough to deter the home side who played attacking football through out the fixture with Lewis Beumie and Dejan Pandurevic who linked up well down the right hand side on several occasions.
It took just over half an hour for the home team to strike after a mix up at the back saw the Mariners’ marksman, Bingham push through the Reds’ defence and calmly slot home his chance from close range to level the scores 1-1.
In the final 10 minutes of the second half Anthony Kalik and Jake McGing linked up beautifully with two set pieces that found the head of McGing who jumped on the end of both but the Adelaide United defence squandered both chances.
During the dying seconds of the first half Bingham set off on a charging run to into space in a bid to double his tally but his shot skewed just wide.
Two minutes into the second half it was the yellow and navy’s danger man in Bingham who made another fledging run down the left flank before whipping in a precision cross.
The Reds attempted to clear danger but a handball in the box resulted in a penalty where Bingahm stepped up with no mistake to score his second goal of the day and send his team to a 2-1 lead.
In the 73rd minute Liam Rose made a pressing run up the middle of the park and slid a ball in behind the defensive line for Lachlan Wales who hit his chance first time which drew Paul Izzo into a diving save.
Tom Slater had a chance to put the game to bed just minutes before full time but his effort lobbed just over the cross bar.
To bring an end to a deserving Central Coast win, Pandurevic was shown his second yellow card of the match which saw him leave the pitch just seconds before full time.
