Maroc - WESTSYDNEYFOOTBALL.COM - reports. - 22/Feb 08:08

One Hand On The Spoon In Gosford Disaster-Class

Central Coast Mariners hosted the Western Sydney Wanderers in a bottom of the table clash where a winner would give themselves hope of avoiding finishing in last this season, the Mariners coming back from a goal down twice, and then pulling off a heist through the unlikely source of a James Donachie winner in the 89th minute. Angus Thurgate opened the scoring in the 7th minute, a midfield battle resulted in Alex Gersbach and Ryan Fraser breaking down the left, Gersbach ended up with the ball deep in the area as the Mariners couldn't reach a bouncing ball first. The full back found Thurgate with a cut back, the left foot strike rolled past Andrew Redmayne as he was playing for an offside against Kosta Barbarouses. The Kiwi international had found himself marking Redmayne after a near post run, but one of the Mariners defenders had run back onto the goal line so Redmayne's claims for an offside were incorrect. Brandon Borrello's awful form continued in the 19th minute, after Gersbach and Fraser combined once again to free the Scottish flyer, he spotted Borrello at the back post in open space, but from 6 yards out with Redmayne scrambling from front to back post, Borrello tried to break the net and crashed the shot off the crossbar, bouncing the ball some 30 yards back to the other side of the field. Central Coast produced their first shot of the game in the 32nd minute, with a long diagonal from Storm Roux to Japanese winger Kaito Taniguchi, who continued into the area, cut back onto his preferred right foot around Phil Cancar's block but decided with cover defence coming on his right to aim for a slightly open near post but put the shot wide. Former Wanderer Ali Auglah was the first man in the notebook with a late challenge on former Mariner Jacob Farrell 15 minutes before half-time. Seconds before half-time the Mariners somehow kept out the Wanderers with a trio of chances from a corner. The Mariners defense fell to sleep and gave Barbarouses an unmarked chance as the ball dropped into the middle of the 6 yard box. With half the goal open he hit Redmayne square in the chest from point-blank range, Cancar had a second chance stretching and his shot hit the bar, down onto the line but not over it, and a third from Pantazopoulos bounced off the head of Donachie and out for another corner with the half ending not long after. Central Coast equalised in controversial circumstances in the 55th minute. Auglah, who was lucky to escape a second yellow card for his persistent infringements in the first half, took advantage of some typically clueless A-League officiating to draw his team level. The goal started with the Wanderers counter-attacking in the midfield, Barbarouses was scythed down on halfway by a late lunge. Referee Shane Skinner played an advantage but before he could even put his arms down Ugarkovic had been pressured by a cover defender and his attempt to find Fraser to his right was intercepted. Instead of going back to the foul, Skinner decided that was enough of an advantage to play on with the Mariners benefiting from their professional foul. They made their way into the Wanderers area, Auglah was left unmarked by Fraser and Farrell and before Thurgate could come across in cover Auglah chipped the ball to the back post with Thomas having no chance of a save. Bozhidar Kraeve and Hiroshi Ibusuki entered the fray and made an immediately impact. Scicluna started a counter on the edge of his area, finding Fraser in space. The winger flew upfield and despite the 6 Mariners defender and the keeper, the foreign trio made a perfect set of runs and passes. Fraser saw Kraev running into space, the Bulgarian knew that Ibusuki was now free in the area at the back post, Redmayne had to cover a potential near post shot and he was stranded when the square ball found Ibusuki with an open net he slotted the ball into, regaining the lead for the Wanderers with the 2-1 score in the 68th minute. The Mariners were back level in the 78th, another former Wanderer, this time Nathaneal Blair, came back to haunt the club that released him. The two Wanderers fullbacks were well off the pace, allowing newly introduced Haine Eames to pick out a long far post cross with Blair unmarked for a headed finish past Thomas. The home side took a shock lead in the 89th minute. The Mariners worked a free kick out to the other side of the field, lobbing the ball aimlessely into the 18 yard box. Pantazopoulos failed to clear, perhaps because of a shirt pull from Brad Tapp, the ref didn't get involved, Donachie's quick pass to substitute Bailey Brandmant was touched onto the post by a full length dive from Thomas, the Wanderers defence stood ball watching. Donachie had stayed forward from the set piece and made a strikers run following in while his opposite number Ruon Tongyik was on his heels. Donachie reacted quickly and was first to the rebound with a side footed pass into the empty net with Thomas looking the wrong way. It was hardly deserved looking at the statistics, but once again the Wanderers, for the millionth time in the past decade, fell apart defensively, missed chance after chance to score, faded out with a lack of intensity that only subsided when they went behind and lost a match they should have won. The Wanderers next match is against Macarthur FC on Saturday the 28th, in Campbelltown with kick-off at 7:35PM.