The Mariners Women played their final regular season game at Industree Group Stadium last night against Western United. A win against Western United would have seen the Mariners Women move into 3rd place on the ladder and guarantee the hosting of an Elimination Final at home.
Unfortunately, the match finished in a 1-all draw.
The Mariners dominated the first half with several chances to score with the best being a Kyah Simon header that hit the crossbar. Annabel Martin nearly scored immediately after when her corner nearly went directly into the goal.
Martin was proving to be dangerous down the left-hand side by delivering crosses and passes that could have resulted in other scoring opportunities. Peta Trimis was also causing issues for Western in her return to A-League footbal after playing in the AFC U20 Women's Asia Cup.
Western United almost had a goal of their own in the first half when a defensive clearance by the Mariners was sliced into the air and hit the Mariners' crossbar.
Score was 0-0 at half-time.
The visitors seemed to be energised after half-time and had several chances with several of these being suppressed by Mariners goalkeeper Sarah Langman.
The game would see its first goal come in the 71st minute. A misplaced backpass by Western defender Stacey Papadopoulos went directly into the path on an advancing Annalise Rasmussen. The Mariners striker was calm and struck the ball past the Western goalkeeper for her 3rd goal of the season.
The score was to be levelled by the visitors 10 minutes later. A surging run through the midfield by Western's Sawicki found the ball going wide down the left to De Domizio whose shot went into the right side of the Mariner's goal.
The Mariners have still qualified for finals football but are now relying upon other results to go their way to determine if they get to host an elimination final.