The Phoenix have enjoyed a happy homecoming on return to WIN Stadium, claiming a 2-1 victory over the Mariners on a wet and windy Saturday afternoon.
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In a tough affair, three goals were scored in the space of 15 minutes just after half time, with Wellington finding the back of the net twice.
The first half proved a stalemate, before Gary Hooper scored three minutes into the second stanza. Central Coast responded four minutes later through Marco Urena, before Jaushua Sotirio's goal in the 63rd minute proved the match-winner.
Ben Waine had a chance to make the result more comfortable in the second half, but his penalty attempt missed the mark.
"It was very important for us to get the three points. It's early in the season and we want to pick us as many points as we can," Wellington head coach Ufuk Talay said.
"At the end of the day, if 'Waino' scores that penalty then it becomes 3-1 and the game is done and dusted, but that happens in football. But I think, overall, it was a good performance and we created some good opportunities where could have killed the game off. But the determination and grit of the players to me was great, the attitude was great, and most importantly we got the three points."
Conversely, Central Coast are now 1-1 this season after securing a round one win over the Jets. The Mariners will now shift their attention to Wednesday night's FFA Cup round of 16 clash with the Wollongong Wolves at WIN Stadium.
"It was tough to lose the game. I thought it was a decent game of football in tricky conditions, with the wind. It was sloppy from us to concede the second goal, but after that, we kept going on and the boys showed a lot of fight, and we were looking to get back into the game," Mariners head coach Nick Montgomery said.
"One thing we'll never do is give up and at 2-1, I was really proud of the boys' effort, and of the boys who came off the bench. They sat 10 men behind the ball and looked to try catch us on the counter-attack, which is what you do when you're trying to hold onto a lead, similar to what we did against the Jets. All credit to Wellington... but chances wise, I thought we had a lot more of the good chances. We were unlucky on the day not to at least get a point.
"But there's no time for looking back, we've got to look forward and we'll dust ourselves down and move forward. We've got a Cup game on Wednesday and Macarthur next week, so plenty of football to look forward to."
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Joshua Bartlett
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
