And that wraps up 2023. The Central Coast Mariners defeated the Perth Glory 4-2, which rounded off a whole calendar year without a win away from home for the Glory.
It’s been the elephant in the room for some time now, the Glory’s away form, and for all of last year, it was diabolical. To be unable to win one game away from home is baffling.
In fairness to the players, going off the start of the game alone, it looked like that run was about to end.
The Mariners had a small patch of control, but then the Glory got into their groove and found an early breakthrough.
Stefan Colakovski and Johnny Koutroumbis combined well, as Koutroumbis whipped in a delightful cross to which Adam Taggart volleyed home from close range at the back post.
It was a well-constructed goal from the Glory, and that cross from the right back was a striker’s dream.
Jacob Farrell’s equaliser for the Mariners came a little against the run of play but that goal was also a well-executed goal on their end as well.
Josh Nisbet played through a delightful through ball, to which Farrell got ahead of his marker and then smashed home from close range.
It was a soft goal for the Glory to eat. Koutroumbis went out to press and left a big hole that neither Luke Ivanovic nor Jacob Muir was able to deal with effectively.
From there, the Mariners got into their flow. You could be critical and say that the Glory’s defensive structure was getting picked apart by the Mariners, but you could also say that guys like Josh Nisbet, Ángel Torres and Marco Túlio were really in the zone.
Their movement and understanding were particularly effective for the Mariners going forward, as they received well in little pockets and were able to cause many dangerous situations.
Alou Kuol put the Mariners ahead in a somewhat controversial fashion. Salim Khelifi looked to have been fouled by Storm Roux, who won the ball back for the Mariners and then found Marco Túlio, who then played in Kuol, who after the second attempt was able to bundle the ball home.
Now, you could say there should’ve been a free kick for the Glory, there appeared to be enough evidence to suggest that Khelifi was fouled. Yet, this was the start of a running theme throughout the game; the referee making contentious calls not in favour of the Glory.
Marco Túlio extended the Mariners’ lead just before the break, as Mark Beevers upon VAR review was adjudged to have used his hand to deflect the ball in the box. Túlio’s penalty drew scepticism from fans due to what appeared to be the player stopping his motion, but the referee seemed to have no problem.
The Glory came out in the second half looking a little better and Stefan Colakovski brought them back into the game in the 52nd minute with a wonderful strike from close range, following some brilliant linkup play between him and Adam Taggart.
Johnny Koutroumbis had a good chance in the 55th minute that was saved by Danny Vukovic. His run forward really helped the Glory’s transition but unfortunately he wasn’t able to reward himself with a goal.
From there, the game ebbed and flowed. Alou Kuol had a few chances. But no doubt the big talking points, during that period and still to come, were the inconsistency with the referee’s decisions. Booking Glory players and not booking Mariners players for similar actions, irked many, including Alen Stajcic at full-time.
VAR stepped in again in favour of the Mariners and they were awarded a penalty in the 88th minute following yet another handball from Mark Beevers.
Marco Túlio took the penalty in a similar fashion, with that extended stutter, and killed the game by making it 4-2.
The Glory were arguably denied a penalty at the end as Dan Hall manhandled David Williams who didn’t go down in the box.
Ultimately, it mattered little as there was night and day between the two sides’ performances.
The xG looks really grim for Alen Stajcic’s side, as the Mariners came away from the game with an xG of 4.28 to the Glory’s 2.15.
Another notable stat was the amount of tackles and duels won in the Mariners’ favour. One thing Glory fans can’t fault the players for is effort, but the willingness to tackle, scrap and defend with a level of intensity and urgency just wasn’t there across the board.
The Mariners made more tackles (16 to 6), interceptions (10 to 9), recoveries (51 to 49) and had a greater duel success rate (62.2% to 37.8%) despite both teams having 90 duels in the entire game.
Many fans made the observation, not just today, but in other games, that the Glory are too easy to play against.
Those numbers, to some degree, highlight that. The Glory eat many soft goals and that then puts the team on the back foot, even if the attackers can score in important moments.
Like many have pointed out before, the Glory continually get themselves into positions where they get killed on the counter-attack, something that has got to be fixed, especially given who our opponents are this week.
The major talking point was without a doubt the referee and his decisions. Mark Beevers and Aleksandar Šušnjar were both shown red cards, Beevers for a second yellow and Šušnjar presumably for dissent.
Notably, Alen Stajcic and Stefan Colakovski were quite frustrated at full-time, even former Glory player and assistant manager Steven McGarry vented his frustration on Twitter as well.
The inconsistency with the referee’s decisions was perplexing. Not for the penalties given, you can’t argue with those calls, but the fouls and non-fouls called. The first thought was to card a Glory player rather than a Mariners player for a similar action and it was frustrating to watch.
Looking forward, it doesn’t get any easier, as with those two key players being out of the side, the beast that is Melbourne Victory will be even more difficult to compete against.
They are in red-hot form and it’s going to take an absolutely mammoth effort from the Glory players to get a strong result at home to start the new year on Saturday night.
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