Central Coast Mariners stormed five points clear at the top of the Hyundai A-League on August 31, three unanswered first half goals at Bluetongue Stadium putting paid to Wellington Phoenix's hopes of building on last week's encouraging start in the competition. At times in this match, you could have been forgiven for thinking the league's newest club had simply changed their name and relocated to another city, such was their New Zealand Knights-esque defending, particularly in the first twelve minutes. In that time, the Mariners, buoyed on by 9052 fans, scored twice, and had effectively killed the game off as a contest almost before it had started. While Wellington began in lively fashion, it was the home team who engineered the early openings, thanks to two John Hutchinson free-kicks. The former saw Phoenix goalkeeper Glen Moss save at the feet of both Sasho Petrovski and Nick Mrdja, as both looked to swoop on a Mile Jedinak lay-off in the second minute. Two minutes later, Nigel Boogaard was the recipient of the midfielder's set-piece delivery, and saw his shot blocked. The ball ended up in the net at the conclusion to this opening, but Petrovski's hooked effort was ruled out as Andre Gumprecht had crossed the ball from beyond the by-line. When the ball was next in the net, the Mariners were on course for victory, and it was Wellington's right flank through which they plotted their opponent's downfall. Overlapping fullback Dean Heffernan made the first of several such raids in the seventh minute, and outmuscled Michael Ferrante before feeding Mrdja on the edge of the penalty area. He jinked past a couple of defenders inside the eighteen-yard box before giving Moss no chance with a sweetly struck drive which arrowed into the far corner of the net. Within four minutes of going a goal down, Wellington had the chance to draw level when Ferrante sent Vaughan Coveny scooting through the inside right channel. But Tony Vidmar's fine recovering tackle thwarted the veteran striker, and from the resulting corner, the visitors found themselves faced with a mountain to climb. Central Coast cleared the danger, and set off down the right flank, only to concede possession cheaply. Their attempts to retrieve it just inside Wellington's half proved successful, however, with Daniel's dramatic tumble failing to convince referee Peter Green that the Brazilian had been fouled. The visitors were livid with this decision, and began arguing with the referee while play continued. Mrdja gathered the ball some twenty-five yards out from goal, spotted Adam Kwasnik racing down the left towards the penalty area and presented it to him on a plate - a sumptuous pass. Such was the space in evidence on the right-hand side of the Wellington penalty area that there was sufficient room in which to turn the Queen Mary 2 about face! Kwasnik wasn't going to let an opening like this go to waste, and produced a classy finish with the outside of his left foot to double the Mariners' advantage, swerving the ball around the again exposed figure of Moss and into the far corner of the net. At 2-0, the game was as good as over as a contest, despite only twelve minutes of play having elapsed - the home team looked so superior, it wasn't funny. And while Wellington looked to get back into the match throughout the remainder of the half and into the second spell, the Mariners were reading them like a book, and they weren't skipping a single line as they denied the visitors at every turn. The home team, on the other hand, always looked dangerous, particularly when raiding down their left, Wellington's right. For with Michael Ferrante playing a more central role, there was space aplenty in which Kwasnik and Heffernan could move unhindered, and the Mariners looked to utilise their speed at every turn. In the 26th minute, the duo featured in a delightful move which also involved Hutchinson and Petrovski, whose lay-off invited Kwasnik to let fly. Like the vast majority of Ferrante's set-piece deliveries for Wellington throughout this match, his effort lacked accuracy. Petrovski decided it was his turn to have a little dabble down the left on the half-hour, and he turned the cumbersome figure of Cleberson superbly before picking out Mrdja on the far post with an inviting cross. The striker failed to hit the target from six yards, the presence of Karl Dodd notwithstanding. From Moss' resulting goal-kick, Shane Smeltz charged at the Mariners' defence, his jinking run culminating in a clipped ball over the head of the retreating Heffernan. Ferrante, racing in behind him,

was unable to get on the end of it. The resulting goal-kick from Danny Vukovic, who hardly touched the ball in anger in the first half, saw Wellington captain Ross Aloisi tracking Kwansik's progress as he galloped down the left. The younger man gained a yard on his more experienced opponent as he cut into the penalty area, and used it to unleash a cross-shot which Moss grabbed well, given Mrdja was hovering with intent. He was doing a wee bit more than that in the 34th minute. A Matthew Osman corner was cleared to Boogaard, whose shot was blocked. So was that of Kwasnik, the resulting clearance finding its way to Osman once more. Kwasnik was lurking beyond all-comers on the far side, and Osman, spotting him, picked out his team-mate with a deep angled cross into the open spaces between the Wellington rearguard and the goal-line. The opposition's hesitance in dealing with the ball allowed Kwasnik to steal in and, at full stretch, poke the ball across the six-yard box. No-one in a white shirt reacted, but Mrdja didn't need a second invitation, and a player who has endured major knee problems in recent seasons swooped to steer home his second goal of the evening, the Mariners' third. Wellington needed a miracle, and a Ferrante twenty-yarder which sailed over the bar straight from the resumption suggested he would be an unlikely source of such an event. Both Petrovski, with a flashing header, and Jedinak, who hit the side-netting at full stretch, went close to extending the home team's lead still further before the half-time whistle, but a three-goal cushion was theirs to play with in the second half. The visitors needed an early goal if they were to have any chance of mounting a comeback, but it was the Mariners who went closest to altering the scoreline before the hour mark. Petrovski had a volley blocked, while Heffernan lashed a cross-shot just over the bar as the gaping holes in Wellington's right flank were again exploited. And on the hour, again via that flank, Mrdja led Dodd a merry dance as he made his way into the penalty area, before taking the self-indulgence a tad too far with a finish which prompted filthy looks from the far better-placed figures of Petrovski and Kwasnik. Wellington finally conjured an attack of consequence in the 66th minute. The almost anonymous figure of Daniel picked out the charging figure of Aloisi with his corner, and the midfielder startled the Mariners with a bullet-like header which crashed off the crossbar from four yards. That served as a warning shot for the home team, and with substitute Felice Campos beginning to weave his unique brand of wizardry for the visitors' benefit, the Mariners soon became a little more circumspect in their play. Boogaard, with an unchallenged header, and Gumprecht, from twenty yards, both went close in the next fifteen minutes, but it was Wellington's fresh-legged Brazilian who was the source of the bulk of the fun in the final half-hour, and one wonders how effective he'll be when given the chance from the start - certainly more so than the likes of Ferrante or the proprietor of Daniel's Dive School, one would think! Campos and Smeltz combined to present Aloisi with a challenging volleyed opportunity ten minutes from time, while three minutes later, the twinkle-toed newcomer gathered a pass from Steven O'Dor and proceeded to bewitch a couple of opponents in the penalty area before rattling the underside of the crossbar. Vukovic smothered Ferrante's attempt to steer home the rebound, as well as a full-stretch effort from Royce Brownlie in the final minute, as he looked to turn home a Smeltz cross, the latter having engineered a similar opening following a crossfield ball from Aloisi three minutes earlier. Osman stepped in to the Mariners' benefit on this occasion, and the final whistle soon afterwards confirmed they had benefited in other ways as well, not the least of which was the three points arising from their second successive win of the campaign - a great start for Central Coast, with this match seeing them provide Wellington Phoenix with something of a reality check after their rousing first round comeback. Mariners:     Vukovic; Osman, Vidmar (booked, 90), Boogaard, Heffernan (Pondeljak, 77); Gumprecht, Jedinak (Simon, 84), Hutchinson (booked, 63), Kwasnik (Owens, 66); Mrdja, Petrovski Wellington:     Moss; O'Dor, Cleberson (Campos, 54), Dodd (booked, 76), Lochhead; Ferrante (booked, 41), Aloisi, Daniel (booked, 29), Christie; Coveny (Brownlie, 61), Smeltz Referee:     Peter Green