The Central Coast Mariners have handed out their second demolition in two rounds by thumping the North Queensland Fury 5-1 at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Saturday night.
After their 4-0 demolition of Melbourne Victory last round, the Mariners continued their no-mercy tactics with goals to Pedj Bojic, Ahmad Elrich, John Hutchinson and a double from Nik Mrdja to leave them in a position to take top position on the A-League ladder.
The first opportunity of the game came in the second minute when North Queensland’s Robbie Middleby got a cross into Fred Agius whose shot drifted over the crossbar.
Central Coast hit back and gained a 1-0 lead in the 22nd minute with a long ball from Dean Heffernan being brilliantly controlled by Pedj Bojic who got a shot away that could not be saved by goalkeeper Paul Henderson.
A free kick from a foul by Malik was taken just outside the 18 yard box by Nik Mrdja whose shot slide past a diving Henderson to hit the back of the net and give the Mariners a 2-0 lead after 35 minutes.
The Fury came into the opening minutes of the second half looking to lessen Central Coasts lead with a through ball from Malik finding David Williams’ feet who got a shot away that went straight to Mariners goal keeper Danny Vukovic.
Mrdja added another goal to his tally for the night after receiving a ball from Bojic and getting a low swift shot into the back of the net for Central Coast’s lead to stretch out to 3-0 in the 59th minute.
The demolition continued shortly after when in the 62nd minute an accurate header from Bojic found Ahmad Elrich who scored to give the Mariners a lead of 4-0.
Looking to at least get on the scoreboard, the Fury’s David Williams got a ball away that was tapped into the back of the net by Rostyn Griffiths in the 67th minute.
John Hutchinson scored a goal in the 81st minute to extend Central Coast’s lead to 5-1.
Mariners Coach Lawrie McKinna believed the score was not a true indication of the difficulty of the game.
“That was a hard game that easily could have been five each,” he said.
“I was pretty disappointed with the first half but their finishing tonight was unbelievable.
“On paper it looks like a very easy win but it was difficult.”
McKinna also acknowledged the significance of back to back wins.
North Queensland coach Ian Ferguson was disappointed in his team’s efforts and concerned about their defence throughout the game.
“The defence was all over the place,” he said.
“We tried a couple of things and, as a result of those, were two goals.”
Defender Robbie Middleby was disappointed they couldn’t make a comeback like they usually do.
“We’ve got enough character in our team to bounce back which we have shown all season, that’s the real disappointing thing that we didn’t come back.”
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