Mariners 0 Victory 0
Toe-to-toe: Victory's Kosta Barbarouses tries to keep away the Mariners' Marco Flores on Friday night. Photo: Getty Images
On a cold, wet and dreary night, in front of a paltry crowd, bidding farewell to two icons of the club and hearing news that the Mariners were contemplating withdrawing from the Asian Champions League and looking into a partial relocation, you could forgive them for wanting to surrender against Melbourne Victory. But they didn't.
Friday night's match marked an end of an era at Bluetongue Stadium as former coach Graham Arnold and chairman Peter Turnbull publicly said adieu to the club they love, but the players showed that the fighting spirit of the Central Coast Mariners did not depart with their leaders.
They were outplayed, outpaced and outgunned by the free-flowing football of Melbourne Victory but they had just enough determination to hold out waves of attacks.
Victory was content to sit deep away from home but when the Mariners invited them to hit them on the counter, the visitors were more than happy to accept their offer. Their pace on the break nearly gave them the lead after 11 minutes when a sweeping Kosta Barbarouses pass found James Troisi, who beat the offside trap with an angled run. He attempted to round goalkeeper Liam Reddy but a heavy touch spilled the ball wide of the goal.
Despite some fluid passes throughout the Mariners' midfield, the tone remained the same for the rest of the first half.
With just four players in their starting line-up who were part of their grand final triumph, the Mariners never looked like their title-winning team. They survived another lucky escape when another counter attack down Victory's right flank gave Mark Milligan a free shot from the edge of the box, but the Socceroo's powerful effort was skewed narrowly wide. The Victory captain was in the thick of it in the final minutes of the first half after a two-foot lunge on his former teammate Marcos Flores was met with a yellow card. He let fly with a tirade to suggest there was no love lost between him and his former colleague.
There was a hint of life in the Mariners after half-time but poor errors continued to give Victory space and possession in dangerous territory. Only brave defending and an intrepid linesman prevented it from translating its dominance into shots on target. Victory's frustration simmered to the surfaced in the 58th minute when a spurned chance for Thompson resulted in internal squabbles among their strikers.
Victory had been tightening the screws on the Mariners for 79 minutes and eventually wore down even the most desperate of their defending, and stayed onside, but even then they couldn't find the opener. Gui Finkler received a clever slide pass from Connor Pain deep inside the area and placed his shot into the far corner of the net.
But it was Reddy who flicked the ball inches wide of his goal.
That save provided the Mariners with some much-needed inspiration and a glimmer of hope that they could steal three points.
Josh Rose, who had not enjoyed his best performance, was out to make amends with a superb long ball to Daniel McBreen who ran free through the middle to bear down on goal.
He slipped the ball beneath Nathan Coe and it trickled into the net, but just as he was joining the fans' celebrations, he was shown a yellow for playing on after a late linesman call for offside.
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