After his side’s morale boosting 2-2 draw with Melbourne City, Blake Powell says the Central Coast Mariners are full of confidence leading into Sunday’s match against Sydney FC.
Powell, a former Sydney FC player, spoke to media at the Central Coast Mariners Centre of Excellence about the motivation behind becoming the first team this season to take three points from the high-flying Sky Blues.
The 25-year-old attacker has featured in all 13 of the Yellow & Navy’s Hyundai A-League matches this season credited the Mariners New Year’s Eve effort against City as one of their best performances of the season.
“It doesn’t matter how much they spend on their team or how much we spend on our team, we can easily match it with them,” Powell said. “We ran over the top of them, so we can match it with these big clubs and it gives us confidence.
“We’re coming off a good performance on the weekend, I was very impressed by everyone, it was easily one of our best games we’ve played, just the intensity levels, our fitness levels are up there now so we’re competing with the best teams in the league.
Adding to the Mariners’ challenge on New Year’s Eve was the short turnaround that saw them face Melbourne Victory away from home just four nights before but Powell said the home support made a big difference.
“We know we can match it with these teams,” Powell said. “We really wanted to come out in front of the home crowd to put in a much better performance and I feel like we did that and were just unlucky to get that win.”
In the wake of the New Year’s Eve match, Powell said that Okon addressed the team about the importance of self-belief ahead of the club’s second match of the season against first-placed Sydney FC.
“We’re looking forward to the game, we feel like we can match it with them and we want to be the first team to knock them off,” Powell said. “It’s one game, but it’ll be a very important game, first team to knock them off and it’ll give us more confidence to continue on the season and hopefully can get into a nice form patch and work our way up the ladder.
“Even after disappointing results, Paolo has never given up on us and we have full confidence in his playing style,” Powell said.
Match Details
Hyundai A-League 2016/17 – Round 14
Sunday 8 January 2017
Central Coast Mariners vs. Sydney FC
Venue: Central Coast Stadium, Gosford
Tickets: CLICK HERE
kick-off: 5:00pm (AEDT)
Official hash-tags: #CCMvSYD & #CCMFC
TV Broadcast: Fox Sports 505
Radio Broadcast: 96.3 Coast FM
