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Central Coast continued to prove their doubters wrong with a spectacular 3-0 win over A-League leaders Gold Coast United at Bluetongue Stadium on Saturday night.
Written off by many before the season started, the Mariners clearly outplayed their highly-fancied opponents with their best performance in some time to climb into second spot on the ladder, just two points behind United.
A first-half strike to Englishman Nicky Travis and great goals by striker Matt Simon and midfielder John Hutchinson in the second saw the Mariners inflict Gold Coast’s second defeat of the season.
Things couldn’t have gone much worse for Miron Bleiberg’s side, with star striker Shane Smeltz controversially sent off in the 68th minute after picking up a second yellow card for dissent.
United had been hit by injury, forcing Bleiberg to hand first starts to former Juventus goalkeeper Jess Van Strattan and teenage African refugee Golgol Mebrahtu.
But the visitors were never in the match and barely had a sight on goal.
The Mariners applied plenty of pressure to the visitors from the get-go and successfully frustrated playmaker Jason Culina while cutting off the supply to Smeltz up front.
The home side took a surprise lead when Travis, who had looked their most dangerous player, scored his first A-League goal in the 26th minute.
Simon collected a headed ball from strike partner Dylan Macallister before turning and finding Travis with a neat pass and the Englishman did well in beating off three defenders and cooly slotting the ball home.
Gold Coast almost hit back just before halftime when Brazilian Anderson forced a good save out of Danny Vukovic with a thunderous strike from a free kick.
But the Mariners continued to control the match after halftime and doubled their advantage through some brilliance from Simon.
The striker collected a long ball from Nigel Boogaard on his chest, turned inside defenders Sebastiaan Van Den Brink and Kristian Rees and finished beautifully from almost 20 metres out at a tight angle.
A tough night at the office got much worse for Gold Coast in the 68th minute when Smeltz was shown his second yellow card after he appeared to make a gesture towards a sideline assistant while disputing whether a ball should have been called out.
And the nightmare continued when Hutchinson finished off a lovely move involving Simon, Pedj Bojic and Michael McGlinchey with a curling shot in the 70th minute.
Bleiberg said he was unsure as to the exact reason for Smeltz’s second yellow card, with the A-League’s top goal scorer to miss next weekend’s home clash with Melbourne through suspension.
The New Zealand striker was booked in the first half for retaliating to a tough challenge.
“I didn’t see any player kicked or any blood, so I call it probably a soft red card but I can’t judge I don’t even know what the event was,” Bleiberg said.
He paid tribute to a much-improved Mariners side but also said his side’s reputation as the team to beat was making opposition teams lift each week.
“I think we, as the Gold Coast, I think our reputation went ahead of us and every team that we play against plays out of their skin,” Bleiberg said.
“And if I give a value for the Mariners the way they played last week against Adelaide (1-0 loss) I give you one dollar and today they played one million dollars.”
Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna, coaching his 100th game for the club, was thrilled with the win, saying it was their most complete performance in recent memory.
“Over 90 minutes it was the most consistent,” McKinna said.
“Creating chances, we kept going and just believing in each other instead of being negative.
“Overall it was very pleasing.”
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