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A-League
Derby Card Fest as Coast Go to Final A-League - 2006 PreSeason Cup - Semi-Final 
 Central Coast Mariners FC 2 (Stewart Petrie 53’ pen, Paul O’Grady 96') defeated Newcastle United Jets FC 1 (Vaughan Coveny 25’) [After extra time]  (Mariners and their 2005 PSC silverware - thanks Corey Davis, sport@westnet.com.au)
Central Coast Mariners came from behind against the 10 man Newcastle Jets to win 2-1 in Gosford, and thus move into the fourth domestic final in their short history, from as many attempts.
They will play Adelaide United in the final of the Pre-Season Cup, a precursor to the upcoming Hyundai 2006/2007 Hyundai A-League season.
Newcastle were in this match courtesy only of the discredited bonus points system, however their performance on the night belayed that, as with 10-men for 84 minutes they put considerable pressure on the new look Mariners defence.
Notable too was the nervous re-start in Australian home-based football of much capped Socceroo Tony Vidmar, who received a roar from the crowd on his injection into the game in the resuffle by Lawrie McKinna at the 73 minute mark. Vidmar admitted his nerves after the game, saying it was entirely due to coming back from his former medical condition.
Also on the park of course was ACT referee Ben Williams, well known to Mariners fans, who gave them two penalties, and gave a one red card to Shane Webb; but split the 10 yellow cards between the teams, ensuring more local derby talking points for the repectable crowd of 7,567.
From the kick-off the Jets presented a free flowing game, forcing an early corner in the 2nd minute when former Marconi defender Adam D'Apuzzo overlapped on the left.
At the other end Coast's tall defender Paul O'Grady was putting himself about, with a flick to Adam Kwasnik whose glancing header tested young Newcastle custodian Ben Kennedy - who tipped it around his right upright with a diving save.
Kennedy was superb, not found wanting throughout the game, which was handy considering there was no-one with gloves on the bench.
Great vision, and an incisive ball, from Andrew Durante in the 18th minute found Jobe Wheelhouse free in the area but he was very quickly closed down by Alex Wilkinson.
Newcastle were dominant, moving the ball sweetly out of midfield to their strikers, with firstly Mark Bridge getting into the danger position, although closed down well by the Coast's defence.
The game was getting somewhat willing, with lots of niggly fouls, however the referee started dealing out yellow cards like he was at Star City.
In the 25th minute disaster for the Mariners when in a sweet move, a pinpoint pass went to the feet of an unmarked Coveny, laying slightly withdrawn, that allowed him to turn and surge into the penalty area - slamming the ball in his style past Danny Vukovic in the Mariners goal. 0-1
The Mariners lifted a gear and Kennedy was forced to leap to take the ball off Kwasnik's head, and a few moments later Damien Brown came close with a shot from the left.
Nick Carle, looking fitter than for years, was injecting himself into the play and in the 36th minute his curling free kick from wide on the right forced Vukovic into a finger tip save.
Damien Brown, patrolling the left sideline, got forward to collect an overhit cross and slam his shot across the face of goal, just missing the far post.
The break saw one change, with Shane Webb coming on for the Jets in place of D'Apuzzo, but after watching Jade North make a run and near miss with a shot, Webb in his first contribution to the game brought down Adam Kwasnik from behind in the area, earning the Mariners a penalty and himself a shower for no real sweat.
The run into the area had been by O'Grady, with Kwasnik on hand to receive. It was Kwasnik who stepped up to take it, but his soft shot low to the left was pounced on by Kennedy, and the Mariners still trailed.
The referees contribution was to continue however, with a penalty awarded five minutes later with Kwasnik going down again, this time under the attention of former Socceroo Paul Okon. Stewart Petrie took the spot kick and made no mistake. 1-1
The game was now wide open, but the free flowing game halted at each penalty area as the defences got on top.
In the 79th minute Jets substitute Labinot Haliti saw his snap shot saved by Vukovic, but generally as the half wore on the extra man of the Coast started to tell with possession being retained better.
So it went into extra time, 15 minutes each way. This was all action - such as Mark Bridge's testing of Vukovic in the 95th.
In the 96th newly signed dead ball specialist Vuko Tomasevic curled a free kick for the Coast, from the right, through the defence, and Paul O'Grady timed his run to perfection, steering a header inside the left post. 2-1
Newcastle, stung by this, responded - substitute Joel Griffiths testing the Mariner defence with his pace. Mark Bridge wasted a chance, blasting over from inside the penalty area. 107 minutes and Coveny had a shot cleared by Tomasevic, and then just minutes later Wheehouse had a shot deflected wide. Then Matthew Thompson had one blocked by O'Grady as the Jets desperately tried to peg back the score.
Gumprecht, Griffiths, Carle, Simon - all contributing to a whirlwind finish that ensured the fans got more than their money's worth, and hopefully a taste of the season proper!
Notable for Coast fans was the inclusion of local Central Coast Lightning striker Matt Simon, whose almost 30 minutes on the park showed some real potential, not awed at this level.
Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna was honest in his comments after the game. "Tonight was our worst performance of the Pre-Season Cup so far, but we’re obviously happy to come away with the win," said McKinna. "Full credit to Newcastle, they threw everything at us and played very well, but we’ll need to improve significantly before the final next week should we want to retain our silverware."
"It’s always nice to win and we’ll be hoping to continue this winning form in to next week’s match and then the Hyundai A-League proper", he concluded.
Newcastle's Nick Theodorakopolous was equally straight in his comments. "Of course I was disappointed." "It (the red carding of Webb) certainly put us in a difficult position to play 42 minutes with 10 men, but the display was nothing short of outstanding and the boys need to be complimented."
He continued, "As the game went on, we tinkered with it as much as I could, but the boys just couldn't find that elusive goal ... but I thought it was a good performance, I am extremely happy." The very succesful former NSL coach added, "Obviously I dislike losing but it was another positive performance and if it all starts falling into place I think we will be extremely competitive."
So the Mariners progress to their second Pre-Season Cup final, this time against Adelaide United FC, which will played at Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium in Gosford next Saturday, 19 August 2006 at 6pm.
A-League - 2006 PreSeason Cup - Semi-Final Crowd: 7,567
MATCH STATS:
Central Coast Mariners FC
Coach: Lawrie McKinna
Yellow Cards: (5)
Andrew Clark 18’, Adam Kwasnik 20’, Stewart Petrie 78’, Tony Vidmar 109’, Paul O’Grady 115’ Newcastle United Jets FC
Coach: Nick Theodorakopoulos
Yellow Cards: (5)
Nick Carle 23’, Jobe Wheelhouse 28’, Jade North 44’, Paul Okon 52’, Joel Griffiths 72’ Referee: Ben Williams Pitch rating: 9/10 (League markings almost gone) Match
Report by Chris Dunkerley
Disclaimer: The content of this report is the responsibility of the writer. Stats are either as recorded by the writer at the game, or as supplied by FFA, or a mixture - no responsibility can be taken for their compete accuracy although we do strive for that. FFA has not this season accredited any Photographers for BOTN, so any photos used here, unless attributed, are as supplied by FFA and used by permission.
Crafted
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