A final score of 0-0 is something Glory fans haven’t been accustomed to over the last few seasons, but it’s one I thought would have come a lot sooner in this campaign.
Getting another clean sheet is small consolation in another game where we failed to find the back of the net. It’s now happened 8 times out of 15 this season.
I saw on Twitter a few people say the penalty in the 18th minute summed up how the season has gone for the Glory. I would say look at the rest of the game to sum it up.
Twenty-one shots and an xG (expected goals) of between two or three I believe. Those stats point in the right direction and show improvement from our earlier fixtures.
More chances are being created, but as this season has shown, if Bruno Fornaroli doesn’t score, the rest of the team doesn’t either.
In the seven games we’ve scored in, Bruno has done so in six of them. The outlier being the 1-1 draw against the Mariners, the game Daniel Stynes nabbed a 93rd minute equaliser.
He should have scored in this game. The penalty save from Mark Birighitti was very good, but the penalty wasn’t in the corner and it gave Birighitti a chance, one which he took with the fingertips of his right hand.
The man who drew the foul for the penalty had a very good game. In the absence of Kosuke Ota, Jack Clisby has really stepped up and did a great job against his old side.
By playing so far up the pitch, he forced Beni N’Kololo to come back on defence and limit his threat going forward when the Mariners did have possession.
He drew quite a few fouls from N’Kololo to create some good opportunities from set pieces. I thought his delivery into the box from corners was good for the most part.
Speaking of corners, I don’t understand one of our corner tactics. It’s happened in a lot of games this season where all our players stand near the goal line like a pack of sardines.
It boxes the keeper so he can’t catch it, but it prevents our tall defenders from getting a run at the ball and having an impact at the other end of the pitch.
When we do this, all I’ve seen happen is the keeper punch it or the ball goes sailing over everyone’s head for a goal kick. I don’t like when we do it and it’s showing no signs of actually paying off.
At least from free kicks we’ve got Fornaroli who can score from distance and now we’ve got a guy capable of consistently putting dangerous crosses into the area in Giordano Colli.
He came close to scoring just before the penalty. A shot on goal from a set piece sailed over Birighitti’s head and crashed down onto the crossbar.
With Brandon O’Neill out injured, Colli will have a lot more game time and I am hoping he can start to contribute some goals and assists.
The second half performance was a significant drop off from the first. The energy and enthusiasm we played with in the first half disappeared after half time.
Fatigue would have set in coming off a short break, but it was still disappointing to see in a home game we desperately needed a win in.
Bruno Fornaroli had a tough time of it, heavily marked by Dan Hall over the 90 minutes. The Mariners knew if Fornaroli couldn’t hold up the ball, our forward play would be less effective.
On a few occasions he would try to go alone when surrounded by Central Coast defenders. Either teammates need to give him a passing option or if they have, Fornaroli needs to find them given he can draw multiple defenders at once.
A lot of focus on the attack and not a lot on the defence this time around. I thought we defended quite well and had a good handle on the game. It was good to see the pairing of Darryl Lachman and Jonathan Aspropotamitis work well and to have Brad Jones playing consistently now.
The Mariners found it tough but would be content with a point on the road. Birighitti gets the plaudits for his third penalty save this season, and Dan Hall went under the radar again with another impressive performance in defence.
A bottom of the table clash with the Roar is up next on the Glory agenda. It’s a home fixture, and I’ll say it again, anything less than a win is unacceptable. If we don’t, any remaining hopes of making the top six will be up in smoke.
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