Rnd 1: Perth Glory v CCM

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

Faty appears to have come in for some harsh criticism here - on face value mostly justified.

That said after reviewing Okon's post-match media last night, he was at pains to point out Faty copped a cork early on and wasn't 100% which may have contributed to his slowness and poor positioning. The penalty was stupid and inexcusable though.

I'd rather he didn't start based on last night but at the same time I don't think one game is a fair go to see where he's really at either.

If you're so badly injured that you can't walk 2 yards to mark the defender who is right f****** there then go down and stay down.
Given he did run sometimes (when he chose to give away a penalty through a highly amateur challenge) I'm not giving him any excuse for the cork.

I can accept a player may have have a deadset shocker on a night - but a lazy defender simply has no place on the park. A lazy midfielder or attacker can make up for it through good positioning and standing off their opponent - defenders don't have that luxury. Defenders may not have to do the most running on the pitch, but they're the position that simply cannot stop running no matter how tired they are.

I don't get to watch many other games so I didn't see what he was like at other clubs - but if he was lazy then it really questions why anybody would want to hire him at this level.

But hey, by all means, start him next weekend.

Of course he isn't our only problem - we still had massive defensive gaps after he left.

 

[true believer]

while faty had a shocker , he is not a serial killer . as a new player to our club he deserve's more time .
generally i think some of you guys need to hold the vitriol ( this not directed at anyone in particular ) . despite , like me your crying blood tears .
mrs TB also read me the riot act too . if i played up any more there would be no alcohol or hippy music sunday night .

ps i love you roy

 

[tim...]

If you're so badly injured that you can't walk 2 yards to mark the defender who is right f****** there then go down and stay down.
Given he did run sometimes (when he chose to give away a penalty through a highly amateur challenge) I'm not giving him any excuse for the cork.

I can accept a player may have have a deadset shocker on a night - but a lazy defender simply has no place on the park. A lazy midfielder or attacker can make up for it through good positioning and standing off their opponent - defenders don't have that luxury. Defenders may not have to do the most running on the pitch, but they're the position that simply cannot stop running no matter how tired they are.

I don't get to watch many other games so I didn't see what he was like at other clubs - but if he was lazy then it really questions why anybody would want to hire him at this level.

But hey, by all means, start him next weekend.

Of course he isn't our only problem - we still had massive defensive gaps after he left.

We conceded no goals after he left...

 

[Coach]

My player ratings:
Ivan Necevski: 9 barely a 6, Must have been watching a different game to me, made some good saves but got caught ball watching on the first 2 goals, faty was poor but Ivan was also to blame! He should have come for both, not good enough
Kept us in the game and only mistakes were a few dodgy passes but did terrifically well. Cementing the number one spot.
Storm Roux: 6.75, 8 a whopping 91% pass accuracy, gave the midfield quality possession, I rather they cross the ball than Roux dive in and get skinned, very strong game, ran out of puff
Struggled with fitness and two of their goals came from crosses from his side will get better as he regains fitness. Made great forward runs in the second half and linked up well with Tavares and Buhagiar.
Ryan Peterson: 6 yep
Had lots of heart and defended reasonably well but struggled to offer anything on the ball.
Jacob Poscoliero: 7.5, a 7 at best gave possession up too often but did have his hands full trying to do his and Faty's job
Was the best of our defense but was caught out of position a couple of times made great decisions on the ball and never rushed the possession game.
Jacques Faty: 0 enough said
Deservedly got dragged and doesn't deserve a spot on the plane home. Was lazy and didn't care and was constantly out of position not only defensively but offensively as well.
Jake McGing: 6 still getting caught ball watching, but good endeavour, needs to stay in the game
Played well but struggled to deal with Keogh and was saved by Necevski numerous times. Kept possession well and resisted the urge to bomb it long when pressed.
Michael Neill: 6 7.5, none of the goals were his fault, strong in the tackle, passing was exceptional after the first couple (86% success), gave Pain fantastic service they brained them down the left
Had a great partnership with Connor Pain down the left side but needs to overlap more. Passing was poor in the first half but improved needs to work on his positioning.
Mickael Tavares: 7.5 yep maybe could go to an 8
Was terrible in the first half epitomized by trying to take on a player in his own box. Improved massively and linked well with Poscoliero and Roux. Connected the team and was apart of our best moves.
Nick Montgomery: 6.5 yep, should nervous with Rose coming back
Had trouble breaking up play and often tried the hard ball instead of the easy one. Frustrated Powell and needs to get back to basics. Joined well with Pain but didn't have his best night.
Blake Powell: 4 6.5 a bit tough not many mistakes, certainly not a failure on the night
Was mostly invisible and had minimal impact. Out of position and it showed.
Trent Buhagiar: 8.5, 7 - endeavour is one thing but needs to produce more with the ball, too often dead ended
Was a shining light in the first half and worked tirelessly forward and back. Raw but promising and looked more than comfortable. Showed technical class with his assist.
Kwabena Appiah: 5.5 yep. Needs to understand just how deadly his pace is
Had good positioning and a decent strike but needed to attack with his pace more.
Roy O'Donovan: 9 yep
Did everything you could have asked of him and delivered when it counted. Fabulous penalty and great positioning for his first goal.
Connor Pain: 9.5Yep, see Neill's comments above
Worked harder than anyone else and deserved his man of the match. His control failed him once or twice but was fantastic down his left side.

Paul Okon: 8.5, 7.5 max, his plan is to hold possession, once we went behind and he let us play we looked better, we need to start that way
Obviously delivered a magical half time team talk and was brave in dragging Faty. Had a clear game plan and is making the team believe in it.

 

[soccer mad]

Faty the party is over THE TW ERA IS OVER , it's time to work run and chase . The boys chased back really well in 2nd great result .

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

No, but we still had a few worriesome moments in defence where we just got completely outnumbered by a Perth attack on the move.
Something to work on and that comes back to our midfielders and onfield communication as well.

 

[Coach]

while faty had a shocker , he is not a serial killer . as a new player to our club he deserve's more time .
generally i think some of you guys need to hold the vitriol ( this not directed at anyone in particular ) . despite , like me your crying blood tears .
mrs TB also read me the riot act too . if i played up any more there would be no alcohol or hippy music sunday night .

ps i love you roy

Agree TB, by half time some here had our season dead after only 45mins of the season, got to have a little more faith than that. Faty will be ok

 

[Rowdy]

?????

You've replied to JPengy's post BUT cant differentiate between his and yours ???

If you're going to edit someones quote in a reply might I suggest you use either bold, italics or change the colour of the text so as to distinguish who's saying what ???

OR you can copy and paste the text between the [ ] that you see once you hit the 'reply' button of the person your replying to
..... just make sure you end their text with an end quote eg [/QUOTE]
..... otherwise it wont work ... properly!

Doing the above seperates a users post into individual boxes like this:

blah, blah - X

blah, blah Y

blah, blah Z

Clicking the icon of 'the page' on the top right hand of the reply text box will change all of your post so that you can see how all of this works ... just click 'use Rich Text Editor' text underneath the reply txt box to change the format back to what you would normally see.

Hope this helps.

 

[style_cafe]

I only managed to catch about 20mins of the second half on the radio so thanks to everyone that have written comments on the game.
It was quite funny (in hindsight) reading the comments as the game progressed.
It`s only early days yet but it`s not looking as gloomy today as it was at half time last night.

Okon`s decision to hook Faty just might be the catalyst to turn this club around.
To me it made a real statement.
PO has set a standard, he can make a tough decision, he`s a fighter & from what I heard on the radio he was very animated & passionate on the sideline. All the things we have been missing over the past two years.

I`m excited for next week & will make the journey down to Sydney for the first time in years.
I`m a little old for the pub crawl up from Central but it would be good to have a drink together prior to the game.
Any meeting places organised as yet?

 

[Rowdy]

I`m excited for next week & will make the journey down to Sydney for the first time in years.

Fcuk'n DITTO!

 

[Rowdy]

I`m a little old for the pub crawl up from Central but it would be good to have a drink together prior to the game.
Any meeting places organised as yet?

The old KB Hotel (first pub on the left as you exit Central Station) is .. well ... old !

It was the traditional home & 'watering-hole' of the Marinators for the first 5-6 years of the HAL, BUT they've spent $0.00 on renovating or upgrading the quality of their food.

Since the GF against the Wanderers,
PJ Gallaghers at Moore park has become a far better meeting place for a pre-game drink.

You can jump on a bus outside of Central that will drop you off at the nearest cross street to the pub at Lang Rd & then its an easy FLAT walk, maybe even slightly downhill to ANZ for the game.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Coach, how you could blame anyone for losing their shit after that first 45 is beyond me. It was truly abysmal.

Coming off the spoon, knocked out of the Ffa cup by an NPL side, and you go down 3 nil by HT in your opening game - and your purely lucky it wasn't higher. Outclassed and poor across the park.

No cause for optimism at that point.

Second half very different - and the responses reflected it. Would have been irrational to hold hope at HT without any evidence to the contrary.

Re Faty, he was awful, but a bad cork does actually make sense of most of what I saw.

 

[true believer]

We conceded no goals after he left...

thanks to a series of world class saves from Necevski

 

[JoyfulPenguin]

thanks to a series of world class saves from Necevski

I think we improved defensively when Faty went off but I think that was mostly to do with keeping the ball better. We still got cut open nearly every time Perth went forward until Castro was subbed.

 

[Rowdy]

What the press are saying:

Mariners steal point in Perth after dramatic fightback:

Central Coast Mariners fought back from 3-0 down to secure a 3-3 draw in Saturday night's A-League clash against Perth Glory at nib Stadium.

A first-half brace to Adam Taggart and a 35th-minute penalty to Diego Castro put Perth on track for a crushing win.

But the Mariners fought back with a vengeance in the second half.

Roy O'Donovan pulled one back in the 56th minute.

And the Mariners were gifted a second goal in the 83rd minute when a goal-line clearance from Glory defender Marc Warren crashed straight into his own goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

The comeback was complete in the 85th minute when O'Donovan converted from the spot after being blocked by Rhys Williams as they ran into the box.

Perth were left to rue a series of missed chances in the second half.

Striker Andy Keogh had three one-on-ones saved by Mariners goalkeeper Ivan Necevski, while a host of other promising forays forward also went unrewarded.

Glory entered the season as one of the title favourites after a promising recruiting campaign that netted them former golden boot winner Taggart, Williams, and new skipper Rostyn Griffiths.

In contrast, Mariners coach Paul Okon only had five weeks to prepare his squad after replacing the sacked Tony Walmsley on August 29.

Central Coast collected the wooden spoon last season in a campaign that yielded just three wins and saw them concede 70 goals.

The additions of former Sydney FC trio Jacques Faty, Mickael Tavares and Necevski was meant to provide the Mariners with some steel and experience.

Instead, the defensive holes of last season were clear to see as the Mariners conceded three goals inside 35 minutes.

Taggart was in the thick of the action throughout the early onslaught.

A perfectly-weighted Castro cross allowed Taggart to head home the opener in the third minute.

And Taggart had his double after tapping home Warren's cross from the left.

Faty looked shaky in the first half, and he cost his team a penalty when he collided heavily with Glory winger Chris Harold in the box.

Castro converted the penalty to send the majority of the 9,501 crowd into raptures.

But from there the Mariners pulled a rabbit out of the hat, ensuring Glory's 20th season anniversary celebrations ended on a muted note.

"I don't think many people saw that coming in the second half," Glory coach Kenny Lowe said. "We basically stopped doing the things we were doing in the first half. I think we took the foot off the pedal to be truthful.

"But we had four one-on-ones in the second half to put the game out of sight. That's the nature of the game."

Mariners coach Paul Okon said he was proud of his team's fightback.

"There's a bit of us that feels disappointed that we didn't go on and win," Okon said.

"Our first half, conceding so early, set us back a bit. We lost confidence, and we were a bit nervous, afraid to make more mistakes.

"But the second half is the type of football we want to play. To do that you need the ball, you need to be brave, and we did that."

 

[Rowdy]

Cultural change motivates Mariners comeback:

Connor Pain and Kwabena Appiah celebrate a Mariners goal against Glory.

Central Coast Mariners winger Connor Pain attributed his new side’s astonishing turnaround against Perth Glory to an honest assessment of the team’s identity.

The Gosford club finished bottom last season and carried that form into Saturday night as they trailed 3-0 at the break.
But a desire to restore the side’s character under new coach Paul Okon sparked the remarkable response.

“We just said (at half-time) that we don’t want to be that club from last year,” Pain told Fox Sports.
“We’ve got some new players with a new gaffer and a new style and we just wanted to make amends.
“I think we’re making inroads to doing that so we’ve just got to keep it up.”
Pain, who played an important part in Central Coast’s second goal, praised his teammates for fighting out of the slump which saw them concede 70 goals last term.
“To go into the sheds at 3-0 down we were a bit worried at what was to happen but we came out a different team,” Pain said.
“I think that’s an absolute credit to the lads. That’s what we’ve got to change at Central Coast and that’s what we’ve got to make better.
“I thought we were absolutely fantastic.”

http://www.a-league.com.au/article/...4yv2wlgypq6a1srq2nw283n73#8E1RxPJvlSu9ZBmc.99

 

[Rowdy]

“I thought we were absolutely fantastic.”

Easy there young Connor,
...... take your MOM 'glasses' off for just a minute.

 

[dibo]

Second halves matter a lot more than first halves. Second halves are where players respond do tough circumstances, where coaches adjust and where we see if they can all learn from what went wrong.

 

[Rowdy]

The turnaround ---> attitude change ---> comeback .... was great.

but I'd be saving the superlatives for more 'convincing' wins.

 

[Wombat]

The turnaround ---> attitude change ---> comeback .... was great.

but I'd be saving the superlatives for more 'convincing' wins.

Or draws