Okon staying grounded as Mariners climb into the top four

Two seasons ago, when Central Coast wallowed in the depths of their worst A-League campaign, even the most loyal of fans would not have dared believe a top-four position possible.

Paul Okon almost still doesn’t, and though the coach believes his battlers will “have a say in this competition”, he’s refusing to buy into premature talk they can push the competition’s heavyweights all the way.

The opening two rounds aside, the Mariners haven’t sat inside the top four since the 2013-14 season near the end of the club’s golden era.

Now a third of the way through Okon’s second season of transformation, the rejuvenated side sit only behind leaders Sydney FC, Newcastle and Melbourne City.

Sunday’s hard-fought 1-0 win over Perth was a showcase of perseverance – and Danny De Silva’s latest case for Socceroos selection.

From nine games the Mariners now have three wins, as many as they managed in total over that dire 2015-16 season under Tony Walmsley.

Yet the man who turned it all around is determined not to let outside noise affect his squad’s progress.

“We didn’t listen at the start when they said ‘same old Mariners, the Mariners conceded again’,” Okon said.

“We didn’t listen to it then, so we ain’t going to listen to it now.

“We know we’re a very good football team, we know we can compete, and we want to have our say in the competition.

“Right now we’re in the top four. It can change very quickly, and we as a football club are conscious of where we’re at.

“We know what we’re good at and the areas we need to improve, and we’ll just continue to do that.

“Along the way we’ll win football games and have some negative moments, but we’ll just keep working hard and hopefully, at a certain stage, maybe look at something a little bit more.”

The main area for work now is execution, after chances went begging against Perth only for De Silva and Blake Powell to combine for a terrific winner.

Glory coach Kenny Lowe was impressed and realistic in equal measure.

“They’ve got good quality, they play some good football,” Lowe said.

“Probably don’t hurt you but they get into great areas. They’ve got some super players, they play a super brand.”

The loss leaves Glory seventh in a topsy-turvy table, with the Jets still flying high in second despite a 2-1 loss to City and Western Sydney languishing in ninth following a lacklustre 2-0 home defeat to Brisbane.

The Wanderers are still after a first win since the opening round and, compounding Josep Gombau’s woes, dealing with injuries to Oriol Riera and Jaushua Sotirio ahead of his first Sydney derby on Saturday.

Though the Sky Blues have been grinding away with slightly more difficulty than last season’s record-smashing crusade, Friday’s 1-0 victory in Adelaide proved Graham Arnold’s men can still eke out results.

Arnold’s arch-rival Kevin Muscat breathed a sigh of relief after Melbourne Victory fought back from a two-goal deficit to down the Phoenix 3-2 in Wellington and reclaim sixth spot.