Sydney FC 4 (Holosko 18’, 65’, Bobo 38’ & Brosque 70’) Central Coast Mariners 0
The Run Down
Despite holding majority of the possession for the entire match the Central Coast Mariners have fallen 4-0 to Sydney FC away from home.
Heading to Allianz Stadium full of confidence after a morale boosting 3-3 draw in Perth, the Mariners stayed true to their style of possession based play against a red hot Sky Blues.
Similar to the match against Perth, the Mariners caused danger on several occasions through their wingers in Connor Pain & Trent Buhagiar who used their sheer pace and sharp feet to create space.
The dangerous deliveries from the Mariners wide men flew agonisingly close to the feet of a charging Roy O’Donovan and Storm Roux on separate occasisions that just needed a touch to find the back of the net.
In fact, it was O’Donovan in the second half that had almost the perfect touch on a third cross that looked destined for the bottom corner before Danny Vukovic made an impressive fingertip save to deny the Irishman.
Mariners’ Head Coach and the Yellow & Navy were left disappointed at both ends of the pitch with two penalty decisions going against them. One for a hand ball in the Sydney FC box from the shot of O’Donovan and another at the other end after Jake McGing was deemed to have fouled Bobo in his own area.
After a tough night at the office, the Central Coast Mariners will regroup for their first home game of the season against Brisbane Roar at Central Coast Stadium on Saturday October 22, 5:35pm.
Goals
18’ HOLOSKO GOAL: After holding majority of possession in the first half the Mariners looked stable at the back until Holosko found himself on the end of a Josh Brillante through ball and finished to open the scoring.
39’ BOBO GOAL: Ninkovic played the ball into the box for Bobo who’s pressure in the area paid off and allowed him to guide his close range shot over the line.
65’ HOLOSKO PENALTY: After Bobo was deemed to be fouled in the box by McGing, Holosko stepped up to the penalty spot and made no mistake with his strike.
70’ BROSQUE GOAL: A defensive lapse saw possession fall to the feet of substitute Alex Brosque who was able to tap home into an open net.
Paolo in the press
“My mindset right at the moment is we wanted to win the game and I thought we came here tonight very brave, we dominated possession,” Okon said. “It was 80-20 at one stage and for most the game it was 70-30 but we conceded four goals.
“That’s the way we want to play football, I’m happy with the team but of course if you’re going to make school boy errors against any opposition let alone a team who’s in form and playing at home you’re going to concede goals. It’s an area we need to work on and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.
“I think we were the better side tonight and I challenge anyone to disagree with me, someone needs to explain to me the handball rule because that’s two in two weeks. That would have made it 2-1 if we scored, if O’Donovan’s finish goes in it’s 2-2 and maybe we’re talking about something different.
“We never gave up, we continued to play our football and we will get better at it and I’m confident that we will win football games.
“Bobo’s a big boy and to knock him over it takes more than the wind, from where I was sitting, very soft.
“I don’t think the style of football costed us four goals tonight, it almost scored us a couple of goals so that’s the thing. Tonight the focus will be on the four goals and not on our style of play and the way we will score goals and the way we should have scored goals tonight. That’s my vision and it aint gonna change, we just need to be more resilient.
“When we’re in possession I think we can hurt teams, it’s about being a bit more brave and we’re working on it.
“The goals we scored last week and the opportunities we created last night are not by chance, they are what we work on.
“We’ve got someone up top that we want to give opportunities because we know Roy’s a goal scorer,” Okon said.
Sydney FC: 20.Danny VUKOVIC (gk), 4.Alex WILKINSON (22.Sebastian RYALL 38’), 5.Matt JURMAN, 6.Joshua BRILLANTE, 7.Michael ZULLO, 9.Bobô (18.Matt SIMON 76’), 10.Milos NINKOVIC, 13.Brandon O’NEILL,17.David CARNEY (14.Alex BROSQUE 65’), 21.Filip HOLOSKO, 23.Rhyan GRANT
Unused Substitutes: 1.Vedran JANJETOVIC (gk), 8.Milos DIMITRIJEVIC
Central Coast Mariners: 1.Ivan NECEVSKI (gk), 2.Storm ROUX, 22.Jake McGING, 4.Jacob POSCOLIERO (19.Jacques FATY 39’), 21.Michael NEILL, 6.Blake POWELL, 8.Nick MONTGOMERY (c) (14.Adam BERRY 70’), 9.Roy O’DONOVAN, 10.Mickael TAVARES, 11.Connor PAIN, 12.Trent BUHAGIAR (13.Kwabena APPIAH 78’)
Unused substitutes: 20.Paul IZZO (gk), 25.Ryan PETERSON
Yellow cards: O’Neill 81’
Saturday 15 October, 2016
Allianz Stadium, Sydney
Sydney FC vs. Central Coast Mariners
