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Petratos double gives Sydney draw

23rd January, 2011
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A brace from impressive youngster Dimitri Petratos gave Sydney FC a draw 2-2 in their A-League clash with the Central Coast Mariners.

The high-flying hosts salvaged a point with second-half goals from Argentinean import Patricio Perez and Matt Simon.

That point allowed the Mariners leapfrog Adelaide to reclaim second spot on the ladder while the Sky Blues remained ninth.

A desperate Sydney outfit needing to win their last five matches to have a chance of securing a finals berth, looked to get on the board early creating two chances within the first 10 minutes.

Nicky Carle, yet to score in his injury-ravaged season, misfired while Scott Jamieson created a great opportunity for Bruno Cazarine but the Brazilian wasn’t quick enough to capitalise.

It was young gun Petratos who put the Sky Blues in front, the 18-year-old producing a clinical finish in the 17th minute off a Jamieson cross.

Petratos again displayed his superb eye for goal, widening the gap to 2-0 just 10 minutes later after taking advantage of poor defence, easily winning the ball off Patrick Zwaanswijk.

There was some controversy, however, as fellow striker Cazarine appeared offside.

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The hosts came back from the break looking to level and Perez did just that in the 49th minute with a beautiful finish off a Oliver Bozanic ball.

The Argentinean threatened again minutes later, this time with a precision cross to Simon who headed home the equaliser bringing the 10,564 fans to their feet.

Sydney coach Vitezslav Lavicka brought on his Finnish striker Juho Makela for Cazarine with half an hour to go in an effort to win back the lead.

Makela, who scored a late goal in Sydney’s previous two outings, almost did the same meeting with a Moriyasu cross but the ball went over the crossbar.

Second half substitute Daniel McBreen looked like putting the host in front numerous times late in the match but just couldn’t find the back of the net.

In what was a heated clash Stuart Musialik, Carle and Makela earned yellow cards while Sydney shot-stopper Liam Reddy is sure to face disciplinary action after sneaking a punch into Matt Simon while clearing a Perez corner.

Sydney skipper Terry McFlynn said while the visitors played a great first half, 2-0 wouldn’t be enough to beat the hosts.

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“We spoke about it at half time, we knew they were going to throw the kitchen sink at us in the second half and that’s exactly what they did,” he said post-match.

“But full credit to the Central Coast tonight, they changed things around at half time and had a real go at it and they’ve shown that consistently through the year that they deserve to be up there.

“So good luck to them in the finals.”

Mariners coach Graham Arnold was happy with the draw and praised his men who have produced results despite their recent heavy schedule.

“The character in these boys is unbelievable, I can’t get over what these guys deliver.

“They’re out on their feet, we’ve had five games in 14 days and travelled to Perth Wednesday.

“And they were 2-0 down at half time, any lesser team with a lesser mentality would have just gone ‘game over’

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“But this group of players are unbelievable.

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