Central Coast Mariners continued their hoodoo over visitors Perth Glory with a come-from-behind 2-1 win in the bayside sunshine in front of 6,883. The defeat ended Glory's perfect start to the season, and their well-deserved win lifted the Mariners away from the bottom of the table.
Mariners coach Graham Arnold suprised with the return of captain Alex Wilkinson from injury, starting Bernie Ibini-Isei, and bringing Mustafa Amini onto the bench, but with only one point they needed to do something to lift.
Disaster though for the home side when in the 6th minute Perth wide-man Scott Neville delivered an early cross into the penalty area from the right, where Travis Dodd had ghosted in past an inattentive defence and the former Red headed low past Mathew Ryan in the Coast's goal. 0-1
The Mariners looked flat-footed as they had for the past two games, and Perth pressed their advantage with Ryan having to parry a shot wide, and then see a ball hit his left upright.
Gradually the some side bussled into a share of control of the midfield and started to isolate Glory captain Jacob Burns.
In the 27th minute the reward came when Pedj Bojic got forward on the right and with his cross picked out Matt Simon in the box and with Scott Neville hanging off some distance. Simon controlled the ball and slotted it into the left side of the net, past his former team-mate Danny Vukovic in the Perth goal. 1-1
The goal gave the Coast a much needed boost in confidence and from then on they largely controlled the game despite the Glory giving a good show late in the game.
Just before half-time Rostyn Griffiths took the ball forward and found Matt Simon. Simon cut inside and making space unleashed a stinging shot from the left at Danny Vukovic's goal. The custodian could only parry the ball away to his left. Alas for the visitors Bernie Ibini-Isei was coming in from the right, following up and free. The young striker calmly put it away past a recovering Vukovic. 2-1
In the second half their were few chances to the Glory, while the Mariners created several more chances that took some good defending by the Glory defence to disarm.
After the match, Mariners coach Graham Arnold said it was vital his players won their individual battles against the Glory. "We had to win the battle first and foremost, so I challenged the boys before the game for seven or eight of us to win our battles, and then I thought our football ability would take over," he said. "We've still got to do better and we can do better," he added.