Melbourne Victory played out a 1-1 draw against the Central Coast Mariners in the A-League on Saturday.
Summary
Callum McManaman’s opener was cancelled out by Marco Urena during the first half at Central Coast Stadium.
In action three days after facing the Wellington Phoenix, Victory ended its four-game losing streak in what was Adama Traore’s 150th A-League game.
Victory created a good chance for Kamsoba in the 11th minute.
Jake Brimmer played a brilliant pass to put the attacker in behind, but Kamsoba fired wide.
Another opportunity came for Victory three minutes later, Robbie Kruse heading wide after good work from McManaman down the right.
After making the better start, Victory took the lead in the 20th minute through McManaman’s third goal of the A-League season.
Brimmer released the attacker with a quick free-kick and McManaman produced a great finish to make it 1-0.
But the Mariners drew level on the half-hour mark, Urena finishing after receiving a pass from Daniel Bouman from the right.
Victory goalkeeper Matt Acton made a fine stop in first-half additional time, saving at the feet of Stefan Nigro.
Central Coast went close in the 51st minute, but Matt Simon was unable to finish as Storm Roux produced some desperate defending for Victory.
Victory sat a little deeper as the game went on and Mariners captain Oliver Bozanic blazed a chance over in the 76th minute.
At the other end, Kamsoba had an opportunity, denied by a clearance after rounding Mark Birighitti following great work by Jacob Butterfield.
Acton tipped over a Jack Clisby effort in additional time as the teams shared the spoils in Gosford.
Player in focus
Key moment
What they said – Kruse
on the game…
“It’s difficult. We’re massively down on troops, it’s been our story all season. I can’t think of a time when we’ve had, for example our four attackers on the pitch at the same time. Everyone’s just gone down regularly so for us in the position we’re in it’s really difficult, you grind, you get the point, you show a bit of character and that’s what we did tonight. Obviously Central Coast are top of the table for a reason, they’re a really fit team and Staj (Alen Stajcic) has got them playing really well so we take the point. I think the first 30 minutes we played really well, we moved the ball around and obviously being our second game in three days maybe played a part in the second half, but we’ll take the point and build on it.”
on injuries…
“Obviously for our club it was difficult, most teams had a proper pre-season, the team was in Qatar playing there (in the AFC Champions League) and then we had to come back and do a strict quarantine. Things were really disrupted, it’s no excuse, us players have to take responsibility and accountability for our performances. We’ve just got to keep battling on, nothing else you can say, it’s the old cliche but we fight, we keep working, we work on the training paddock and hopefully things will turn around and hopefully tonight is a little stepping stone for us.”
Result
Hyundai A-League 2020/21
Central Coast Mariners 1 (Marco Urena 30′)
Melbourne Victory 1 (Callum McManaman 20′)
Central Coast Mariners: Birighitti (gk); Nigro, Tongyik, Rowles, Clisby; Bouman, Bozanic (c) (Cassella 87′), Stensness (Nisbet 45′), De Silva (Janota 79′), Simon, Urena (Kuol 79′).
Melbourne Victory: Acton (gk); Roux (Anderson 57′), Ansell, Ryan (Shotton 63′), Traore (Markovic 62′); Barnett, Butterfield; McManaman, Brimmer (Kirdar 78′), Kruse (c); Kamsoba.
Yellow cards: Stensness 29′, Clisby 48′, McManaman 49′, Shotton 64′, Ansell 79′
Red cards: Nil
Attendance: TBA
Venue: Central Coast Stadium
Next up
Victory returns to AAMI Park for a clash against Sydney FC on Sunday, April 4.
