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Central Coast coach Lawrie McKinna says the Mariners desperately need to lift themselves out of their worst ever A-League slump, even if they can’t overturn their minor semi-final deficit against Queensland.
The Mariners head into Friday night’s second leg at Bluetongue Stadium 2-0 down and needing an unlikely three-goal win to progress to the preliminary final.
But of as much concern to McKinna is the fact the Mariners are simply not winning games with their Asian Champions League campaign looming next month.
Long regarded as one of the A-League’s most consistent sides, the Mariners first-leg defeat at Bluetongue Stadium last Friday was their fourth loss in a row, completing their worst losing streak in the club’s history.
“We know it’s going to be hard (to qualify), but the big thing for us is that we stop getting beat,” McKinna said.
“Even getting a draw is a start for us because we’ve got another season to play – we’ve got the Champions League to go.
“So going up there and getting a draw would be a good result.
“If we can beat them and we still don’t qualify then it’s a step in the right direction and obviously the ultimate goal is we get a goal first and put them under pressure.”
The Mariners returned to training on Monday and McKinna admitted there was an obvious sense of disappointment from the first leg performance.
“It was quiet yesterday, we got to training and it was very quiet,” McKinna said.
“But after we started training the boys were all good.
“They’re just disappointed. We played alright in the first half … but the disappointing thing for us as a team was the last 20 minutes, we just lost our direction.”
The Mariners welcome back Socceroo Dean Heffernan from suspension for Friday’s match while they will also be buoyed by the fact their only other match at Suncorp Stadium this year ended in a 4-2 win.
McKinna said that result reminded the Mariners they were capable of scoring goals against the Roar on their home turf.
“We played well up there and we dominated and again they scored (goals) through set pieces,” McKinna said.
“We’ve done it this season already and there’s no reason why we can’t do it again.”
The Mariners added another member to their ACL squad on Tuesday ahead of their opener against Pohang Steelers on March 11 with the signing of midfielder Nick Rizzo from Perth Glory.
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