Central Coast Mariners 2 Adelaide United 1: Galekovic injured as champions lose basement battle

Central Coast Mariners inflicted more misery on champions Adelaide United, winning 2-1 in the A-League basement battle.

The two sides came into the match occupying ninth and 10th places in the table and Central Coast’s home win ensures Adelaide remain rooted to the bottom.

Paul Okon’s side picked up a second straight victory after Fabio Ferreira’s volley gave them the lead eight minutes before half-time, the Portuguese winger taking advantage of a mistake from substitute goalkeeper John Hall to score in consecutive matches.

Hall was on after first choice Eugene Galekovic suffered what looks like a serious shoulder injury.

With Mariners keeper Paul Izzo having made key saves to preserve the lead, Kwabena Appiah-Kubi came off the bench to seal the victory with his first A-League goal 12 minutes from time by netting the rebound after Hall had saved from Josh Bingham.

Adelaide’s Jordan O’Doherty also got his first A-League goal in stoppage-time, finding the top corner with an impressive strike, but the damage had already been done.

The champions’ miserable defence of their title has seen them win only two of their 18 league games and they now sit five points behind the Mariners.

FULL TIME | One from Ferreira and one from Appiah sees @CCMariners take the three points! #CCMvADL #ALeague pic.twitter.com/F5B69QEagM

— Hyundai A-League (@ALeague) February 5, 2017