Melbourne Heart have
defeated Central Coast Mariners 1-0 in a scrappy game at AAMI Park on Sunday
afternoon.
Melbourne Heart and coach John van ‘t Schip made six changes
with Eli Babalj, Matt Thompson, Aziz Behich, Mate Dugandzic, Curtis Good and
Paul Reid all coming in for Rutger Worm, Wayne Srhoj, Alex Terra, Jonathan
Germano, David Williams and Craig Goodwin.\
Central Coast coach Graham Arnold made two changes from
their thrilling 3-3 draw with Gold Coast on Wednesday with Mat Ryan returning
from Olyroos duty to replace Justin Pasfield and John Hutchinson also coming in
for Adrian Pellegrino.
The game started off slowly but on 11 minutes the game was
livened up when Behich left his foot in on Ryan as the Olyroos ‘keeper
collected the ball. Both players were subsequently yellow carded.
The first real chance came from Tomas Rogic on 17 minutes
but his low effort was comfortably saved by Heart custodian Clint Bolton.
Two minutes later Rogic tested Bolton again with an effort
almost identical to the previous effort but Bolton once again saved easily.
On the half-hour mark Pedj Bojic created the best chance of
the game when he put in a great ball for Adam Kwasnik but the 28-year-old
headed just wide of the upright.
Fred created Heart’s first real chance of the half but
curled his effort into the hands of Ryan.
Five minutes into the second-half Melbourne Heart took the
lead through Babalj. Dugandzic was found on the right wing and played it to Fred
whose initial scuffed effort was tucked home by the 19-year-old.
Soon later the referee Jarred Gillett gave a penalty after
Fred fouled Rogic inside the box. Sutton stepped up but the Englishman hit his
effort off the post. Patrick Zwaanswijk’s follow-up effort was also weak and
easily saved on the goal line by Bolton.
Coach Graham Arnold however wanted Zwaanswijk to take the
penalty instead of Sutton who had never seen taken a penalty.
Two minutes after Bernie Ibini came on for Sutton he cut in
from the left but Bolton was behind it to make another save.
Heart went right up the other end and Behich drove his
effort just wide of the far post however Babalj was unmarked in the centre.
On 75 minutes Kwasnik was looking for an equaliser but curled
his effort just wide of the far post.
One minute later Babalj had a huge chance to extend the lead
after beating Alex Wilkinson but fired over the bar.
With five minutes to go Michael Marrone, who was selected
for the Socceroos squad, fired a long range drive but Ryan comfortably saved.
Heart were able to hold on for the win which means that Melbourne
Heart jump Newcastle into fifth place. After Brisbane Roar’s defeat of Perth
that means the Mariner’s lead up the top is cut down to three points.
Central Coast Mariner’s boss Graham Arnold thought he side
played well despite the loss. “I thought we played well tonight, much better
performance than when we were down here last time against Melbourne Heart and I
thought we definitely had the opportunities to win the game but in the end of
the day it’s football so let’s move on quickly.”
Melbourne Heart coach John van ‘t Schip was delighted to get
the three points. “Yeah very important, three points in this last phase after
having of course the games of course that we lost and now we have won two in a
row.”
Match
Stats:
Melbourne
Heart
1. Clint Bolton (GK), 2. Michael Marrone, 3. Brendan Hamill (13.
Jonathan Germano 72’), 4. Simon Colosimo, 5. Fred (C) (11. Alex Terra 79’), 6.
Matthew Thompson, 16. Aziz Behich, 18. Curtis Good, 19. Eli Babalj, 23. Mate
Dugandzic (7. Rutger Worm 66’), 26. Paul Reid
Unused
Substitutes: 30.
Sebastian Mattei (GK)
Coach: John van ’t
Schip
Goal
Babalj 50’
Yellow
Cards
Behich 11’, Reid 15’, Fred 42’, Babalj 65’, Thompson 68’, Alex
Terra 90+3’
Central
Coast Mariners
1. Matthew Ryan (GK), 3. Joshua Rose, 4. Pedj Bojic, 6. Patrick
Zwaanswijk, 7. John Hutchinson, 8. Rostyn Griffiths, 14. Michael McGlinchey
(12. Troy Hearfield 79’), 17. Tomas Rogic (2. Daniel McBreen 83’), 18. Alex
Wilkinson (C), 19. John Sutton (9. Bernie Ibini 58’), 23. Adam Kwasnik
Unused
Substitutes: 20. Justin Pasfield (GK)
Coach
Graham Arnold
Yellow
Cards
Ryan 12’, Kwasnik 13’, Bojic 65’
Crowd: 5, 034@AAMI
Park
No comments:
Post a Comment