The Central Coast Mariners men's team tonight secured their 10th consecutive match without a loss by defeating Brisbane Roar by a scoreline of 2 goals to nil.
The game started with both sides missing key players. The Mariners were missing Storm Roux through suspension whilst Brisbane was without key playmaker in Jay O'Shea.
The match started tentatively for both sides with the first menacing shot on goal saw the visitors attempt in the 16th minute saved. At the other end, the Mariners Angel Torres come very close to scoring 5 minutes later.
Mariners goalkeeper Danny Vukovic made an excellent save in the 27th minute when a shot from Roar's Mileusnic was headed to the bottom right-hand corner of the goal.
The dealine was broken by the Mariners in the 38th minute when Jacob Farrell neatly placed a through ball to Miguel Di Pizio. Miguel struck the ball with a powerful left-footed strike to the bottom right-hand corner, giving him his first A-League goal.
Mariner's Torres had an opportunity in the first minute of extra time that was identical to that which just missed earlier in the half.
Scoreline was 1-nil at half-time.
The second half saw the best opportunity for the match be for the visitors in the 82nd minute. The Roar raided down their right-hand flank with replacement Thomas Waddington missing to the right of goal by mere centimetres.
This seemed to spur the Mariners on and in the 90th minute they extended their lead with a second goal. A through ball from Josh Nisbet resulted in a fast break to Angel Torres who beat several Roar players and scored with a powerful shot to left of the Brisbane goalkeeper.
The Mariners blooded two new players during the match when they brought on Ronald Barcellos in the 75th minute and Bailey Brandtman in the 5th minute of extra time in the second half.
This win places the Mariners into 3rd position on the Isuzu Ute A-League Mens ladder.
Their next game is against Adelaide United on Saturday, 3rd February 2024 with kick-off at 7:45pm (AEDT).