Perth Glory finally broke their hoodoo at Central Coast stadium beating the Mariners 1-0 on Sunday courtesy of a brilliant free-kick from Nebojsa Marinkovic.
The Serbian forward’s 43rd minute strike continued the Glory’s strong start to the season lifting them to the top of the A-League table, but compounded the Mariners’ woes. For the first time in their history Central Coast have lost three out of their first four games to remain in unfamiliar territory in the bottom half of the ladder.
In nine previous campaigns the Glory have never managed a regular-season victory at Central Coast Stadium, their only win in Gosford coming in the 2011-12 finals series where they needed penalties to overcome the Mariners. But in front of 6,391 on Sunday they managed to turn the tables.
After a cagey start to the match the Mariners began to show some attacking promise midway through the opening half. Exposing the Glory down the left side, the hosts got the ball forward with Mitchell Duke forcing a save from Danny Vukovic in the 23rd minute. Moments later Nick Fitzgerald sent the ball across the face of goal with Isaka Cernak not quite quick enough to reach it.
The Glory then began to fire with Rostyn Griffiths getting a golden chance to score against his former club late in the half, but instead played a cross to Marinkovic. Vukovic came to Glory’s rescue with a double save in the 39th minute blocking a long-range strike from Anthony Caceras with Duke leaping on to the rebound, only to also be denied.
Mariners skipper John Hutchinson was then made to pay for his foul on Mitch Nichols with Marinkovic stepping up to slot a superb free kick into the top corner and put the visitors 1-0 up just before the break.
The Glory kept the momentum in the second half with Mariners keeper Liam Reddy called into action early to deny Irish striker Andy Keogh. The Mariners looked like equalising in the 73rd minute when Glen Trifiro played the ball back to Duke who shot from point-blank range, forcing another quick-fire save from Vukovic.
Mariners coach Phil Moss brought on Malick Mane as a late substitute and the new Senegalese import had one last-ditch effort to level in extra time but was denied by Vukovic.
