Mariners go three points clear in A-League

Central Coast Mariners stretched their unbeaten A-League run to eight games with a 2-1 victory over Brisbane Roar on Saturday.

First half goals from Mustafa Amini and right back Pedj Bojic did the damage for Graham Arnold’s men who secured their fifth straight win.

Contrastingly, Ange Postecoglou’s Brisbane outfit slumped to their fourth consecutive defeat, with the Mariners now three points clear at the top of the table with a game in hand.

Kofi Danning scored an 83rd minute consolation for the Roar.

After the game, Central Coast boss Graham was delighted with the character shown by his players, but stressed they still have plenty to work on.

“It was great to see the character and attitude (of the players),” Arnold said.

“They carried out the game plan to perfection in the first half…but they know they can do better.”

“They defended the set pieces fantastically.”

Arnold said that while his side was pleased they had come up trumps at Suncorp, banishing any lasting demons from last season’s loss to Roar, there was no wild celebrations after full-time.

“These boys, I want to push them to another level,” he said.

“There’s no celebrating that they’ve won, it’s more ‘we’re disappointed with our second half’.”

“They know they can do better.”

Postecoglou praised his players’ efforts.

“I thought the important thing was that we finished off strongly,” he said.

“We had quite a few guys there who were running on fumes and to be honest I’m more proud of that second half performance than I was of winning the whole thing.”

“For me it’s about people, at half-time it would have been very easy to throw the white flag up because of everything that’s occurred.

“We’ve got quite a few injuries at the moment and there are guys who shouldn’t be out there.”

“I couldn’t be prouder of the way they went about it second half, I’ve got no complaints at all.”

Postecoglou said his players continued to show the improvement required to turn the results around.

“I understand that people don’t necessarily agree with my line of thinking but we’re going down this path,” he said.

“We’re not going to change, we’ll keep playing out from the back, we’ll keep copping goals and people will want us to change and do things differently but we won’t.”

“We’ll keep doing what we’re doing, we’re not too far off the mark and we’re showing good signs, positive signs about our performances and we’ll keep improving and keep working on it.

“The areas we may be a little deficient we’ll keep working and improving but we’re not going to change and I’m not going to change.”