This Saturday the Central Coast Mariners host Perth Glory, a team that we’ve scored five goals against this season. After the Mariners’ final training session, we caught up with Head Coach, Paul Okon.
This will be the third and final time the Mariners face Perth Glory this season with the two previous fixtures delivering arguably the Yellow & Navy’s most exciting matches.
The round one encounter in Western Australia saw the Mariners salvage a three goal deficit to come from behind in the second half to record a 3-3 draw. The round eight match at home will be fondly remembered by Mariners fans who were on hand to witness a cleansheet as well as goals to Roy O’Donovan & Harry Ascroft during our 2-0 victory.
Saturday proves another difficult task with the club’s leading goalscorer Roy O’Donovan missing through suspension and injury concerns to Mickael Tavares & Jacques Faty.
However, Jacob Poscoliero looks likely to return to Hyundai A-League action for the first time in since round two, adding depth to Okon’s defensive options.
Game Day Guide
- 1:30pm: Gates open at Central Coast Stadium
- 2:00pm: Foxtel National Youth League Grand Final (Sydney FC vs. Melbourne CIty)
- 2:30pm: #GrowthForGosford Showcase opens in Dane Drive that will display major projects/concepts that are planned for Gosford
- 4:00pm: Pre-Game Function for all supporters in Gosford Bowling Club with former Mariners players. Raffle for retro kits, Q&A format
- 5:35pm: Hyundai A-League kick-off vs. Perth Glory
From 2:30pm the doors will open to the Official Pre-Game Function where you can enjoy a meal with a BBQ in operation that has a menu starting from $3 which includes steak and sausage sandwiches as well as craft beer from Six String Brewery.
Then from 4:00pm (straight after the FNYL Grand Final) you can join us in the bowling club with a host of former Mariners’ players such as Damien Brown, Patrick Zwaanswijk and Matt Crowell who will help us draw the raffle and take part in a range of Q&As.
Paolo in the press
“We love playing at home,” Okon said. “We’ve been looking forward to this game for a while now, it delivered three points in round eight so we’re really hopeful that we get the same outcome tomorrow.
“On paper Perth have a very strong team, they’ve had some good results and of course last week’s win over Victory was a come back win for them so I’m certain Kenny is delighted with how they’re travelling.
“Every game has its challenges, we come into this game off the back of a disappointing episode in Melbourne but the performance was good, we worked hard and we looked very dangerous in the opening 20 minutes prior to the sending off so we go into this game with some confidence but we’re aware we need to stop Castro, Keogh, Taggart, Harold – a front four that is up there with any of the attacking weapons in the A-League.
“Castro is one of the hot favourites to take out the Johnny Warren medal again – he plays on the left, close to me on the bench so I might have to trip him over as he’s running past. In the A-League if you’re a neutral it’s great to see players like him in our country playing but for us we are aware of how dangerous he is and we need to limit his supply.
“I’m a big believer that the ladder doesn’t lie, certainly after 27 rounds – it’s maybe not telling the true story at the moment but there are enough games left for us to climb the ladder, hopefully that starts again tomorrow.
“We’re not looking too far ahead, tomorrow is about turning up and performing in front of our supporters and we are genuinely confident that we will be in the race for three points.
“We expect to dominate possession which we’ve done in the two games we’ve played them. We’re missing Roy which is a big loss, he’s scored eight important goals but Josh Bingham will get his chance and I think everyone will be really eager to see how he goes.
“We’ve been in the game, in every game this season and I don’t really have any concerns when we have the ball it’s those moments where we switch off and lose concentration where we’ve been punished,” Okon said.
Central Coast Mariners Squad: 1.Ivan NECEVSKI (gk), 2.Storm ROUX, 3.Scott GALLOWAY, 4.Jacob POSCOLIERO, 5.Harry ASCROFT, 6.Blake POWELL, 7.Fabio FERREIRA, 8.Nick MONTGOMERY (c), 11.Connor PAIN, 12.Trent BUHAGIAR, 13.Kwabena APPIAH, 14.Adam BERRY, 16.Liam ROSE, 17.Josh BINGHAM, 20.Paul IZZO (gk), 21.Michael NEILL, 22.Jake McGING, 26.STEVE WHYTE
**two to be omitted**
Ins: 4.Jacob POSCOLIERO (return from injury), 17.Josh BINGHAM (promoted), 26.Steve WHYTE (promoted)
Outs: 9.Roy O’DONOVAN (suspension – 1 week)
Unavailable: 10.Mickael TAVARES (ankle injury – 1 week), 19.Jacques FATY (hamstring – 1 week), 23.Jake ADELSON (ACL – indefinite)
Perth Glory Squad: 3.Marc WARREN, 4.Shane LOWRY, 6.Dino DJULBIC, 7.Joel CHIANESE, 9.Andy KEOGH, 10.Nebojsa MARINKOVIC, 11.Richard GARCIA, 13.Nicholas FEELY, 14.Chris HAROLD, (gk), 15.Brandon WILSON, 16.Joe MILLS, 17.Diego CASTRO, 19.Josh RISDON, 20.Aryn WILLIAMS, 22.Adam TAGGART, 23, Kosta PETRATOS, 24.Milan SMILJANIC, 33.Liam REDDY (gk)
**two to be omitted**
Ins: 14. Chris HAROLD (promoted), 20.Aryn WILLIAMS (promoted)
Outs: nil
Unavailable: 2.Alex GRANT (foot – 3 weeks) 8.Rostyn GRIFFITHS (suspended – 1 week) 18. Mitch OXBORROW (foot – 3 weeks)
Match Details
Hyundai A-League 2016/17 – Round 17
Saturday 28 January 2017
Central Coast Mariners vs. Perth Glory
Venue: Central Coast Stadium, Gosford
Tickets: CLICK HERE
kick-off: 5:35pm (AEDT)
Official hash-tags: #CCMvPER & #CCMFC
TV Broadcast: Fox Sports 505
Radio Broadcast: 96.3 Coast FM & 92.5 ABC Central Coast
