Mariners´ year of cheer pleases Arnold

A 0-0 draw with Gold Coast United could not spoil Graham Arnold’s mood as 2011 drew to a close.

The Mariners coach was in a reflective frame of mind after seeing a defensive Gold Coast end his side’s six-match winning run by registering a fourth consecutive clean sheet in Gosford.

Central Coast’s lead at the top of the A-League is now just three points after Melbourne Heart’s demolition of Sydney on Thursday, but by avoiding defeat the club were able to end the year on a positive note.

“Overall, I’m very proud of the boys in 2011. It’s been a fantastic year. As I just said to them, in home and away games in the A-League in 2011 they lost two games and they didn’t lose at Bluetongue (Stadium) in the whole calendar year. The boys have been fantastic and tomorrow’s a new year and we start again,” he said.

Arnold talked up Gold Coast’s counter-attacking threat, revealing he was unwilling to throw everything at a team with plenty of potential to ruin the Mariners’ unbeaten record.

“I’m happy with the way we played. There was only one team winning but the threat was on the counter-attack so we had to make sure we kept a number of players behind the ball. We were worried about the pace of (James) Brown, (Ben) Halloran and (Maceo) Rigters on the break,” he said.

Mariners midfielder John Hutchinson said the pitch – described by Gold Coast counterpart Peter Jungschlager as ‘slippery’ and by Arnold as ‘very difficult’ – posed some problems for the players, but refused to blame the result on conditions that affected both sides equally.

“It’s a tough pitch,” Hutchinson said. “We deserve a nice pitch to play on. The ground’s bouncy and we find it hard, but they find it hard also so we can’t blame the pitch for us drawing the game.”

Central Coast striker Matt Simon played his penultimate match for last season’s grand finalists after confirming a switch to K-League club Chunnam Dragons on Friday, and Hutchinson said the squad was keen on making his final match a memorable one after failing to fire in front of a crowd of 14,838 on Saturday.

“I love Matty as all the boys do and if anything it should spur us on to send him off as a winner in the last few games,” Arnold said.

“Matty has been a great clubman. He’s fantastic with the boys. Everyone loves him, he’s a fan favourite. Hopefully we can send him off as a winner (on Wednesday against Melbourne Victory).”

Arnold hinted that Trent Sainsbury could be called in to deputise for Patrick Zwaanswijk against Victory, after the centre back picked up his fifth yellow card of the season against Gold Coast.