Mariners outlast Roar

The Central Coast Mariners have extended their lead at the top of the table to seven points and maintained their 100 per-cent start to the season through a 1-0 win over Queensland Roar at a rain-drenched Suncorp Stadium.

With three games still to play in the third round, the Mariners have already established a clear distance between themselves and the chasing pack after Adam Kwasnik's rifled winner handed the visitors their first win over the Roar in seven league meetings.

The Queenslanders dominated proceedings but fell foul to a cleverly worked corner early in the second-half with the depleted Mariners, minus Qantas Socceroos call-up Dean Heffernan and No.1 Danny Vukovic, then holding on for a third successive Hyundai A-League victory.

Vukovic's replacement, Matthew Trott, made two outstanding second-half saves to preserve the Central Coast's lead but the Roar was left to rue three chances spurned by South American playmaker Marcinho.

"We were under a lot of pressure in the second-half," Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna said afterwards. "But we defended desperately."

"It's probably the worst we've played in the three games but defensively it was great."

Coach Frank Farina opted to continue with Danny Tiatto in central midfield despite the absence of Andrew Packer at left-back and, helped by the former Socceroo's influence, the Roar had steadily gained control of the midfield battle.

Tiatto, who managed to avoid getting booked and so is free to travel to Perth next weekend, actually dislocated his left shoulder in the first-half in an innocuous challenge with Sasho Petrovski before bravely continuing.

Goalkeeper Liam Reddy saved smartly from the onrushing Kwasnik on four minutes, but from then on Queensland manufactured the better goalscoring chances with Marcinho twice going close although failing to test Trott on either occasion.

Central Coast midfielder Mile Jedinak, who had been designated to man-mark the Brazilian, was sticking to his task but with Petrovski and Nik Mrdja starved of service strikes on goal were few and far between.

In the shadows of half-time, Andre Gumprecht and Simon Lynch both wasted clear-cut opportunities with the German midfielder firing wide after neat work from Petrovski and Lynch inches away from deflecting Matt McKay's centre past Trott.

But 10 minutes after the break, a well-worked corner from Damien Brown caught the Roar defence napping and Kwasnik thundered a shot through a crowd of players and past the unsighted Reddy.

Marcinho should have drawn the scores level after dancing through the Mariners backline but again failed to find the target with a rasping low drive before Trott's outstanding double save.

First the 22-year-old Gosford-born 'keeper blocked Ante Milicic's effort after Tony Vidmar failed to clear, then pulled off an acrobatic one-handed diving stop to deny Reinaldo's goal-bound header.

By now Queensland was throwing everything at the resolute Mariners but the league leader held firm to end a hoodoo stretching back over two seasons.

Farina said afterwards he was unconcerned that the goalscoring problem which has dogged the club for two seasons remained unsolved.

"You keep creating chances and trust me there'll be a time when you'll be wondering who to leave out because everyone is scoring," the Roar coach said.

"Hiccup, speed bump, whatever you want to call it (but) I'm still confident with the way the team's going that we'll do well."

Queensland Roar 0
Central Coast Mariners 1 (Kwasnik 55)

Crowd: 8815 at Suncorp Stadium