Date: Friday September 3
Kick-off: 8:00pm AEST
Venue: Bluetongue Stadium
Head-to-head
Played 15: Wins: Melbourne Victory 7, Central Coast 5, Draws: 3
Previous Meeting
Central Coast Mariners 0, Melbourne Victory 3, Bluetongue Stadium, December 2009
History
Matches between these two teams have traditional produced a lot of goals - 27 in the past eight encounters and they have generally favoured the away team. Melbourne have not lost in Gosford since 2007, while Central Coast won both games at Etihad Stadium last season by an aggregate of 6-0.
Season So Far
Central Coast: DLDW
Melbourne Victory: WDLD
Match Committee
Central Coast coach Graham Arnold loses Patricio Perez for this match, controversially suspended for his 'dive' against Sydney and has included both Brad Porter and Matthew Lewis. Matthew Ryan is in a battle for the goalkeeping position with new recruit Paul Henderson.
Melbourne will probably be without Evan Berger, who has a corked hamstring, with Billy Celeski or Tom Pondeljak likely to come back into the squad. Ricardinho is still waiting for a clearance, while Nick Ward has departed the club for Wellington.
Danger men
Michael McGlinchey - The Kiwi midfielder has caused plenty of headaches for Melbourne in the past and will be crucial to Mariners' hopes of getting control of the middle of the park and supplying to a powerful strike-force minus the touch of Perez.
Carlos Hernandez - There were signs against Gold Coast last week that the Costa Rican was starting to find form as he directed traffic going forward and put a few shots on goal himself. His Johnny Warren Medal winning-form is not that far away.
At the end of the day….
It was interesting to see Melbourne opt for a more defensive approach last week after taking an early lead. Coach Ernie Merrick has admitted that his young strike force of Robbie Kruse and Mate Dugandzic will take time to get used to each other and perhaps the usually forthright Victory have opted to use their experience at the back to control the play and put less pressure on their inexperienced pair up front.
The Mariners were fortunate to get a point last week and they have certainly lost their way a little since their opening win over Melbourne Heart. This is just their second match at home, having drawn their previous encounter against Adelaide and Arnold will be hoping on an improvement in the home form from last year, where they managed just three wins.
Despite a history of these two teams producing goals, this one might end up being a tight contest with few clear cut chances. Class might prove a point of difference, which means you’d probably just lean to the visitors.
TEAMS:
Central Coast Mariners squad: 2 Daniel MCBREEN, 3. Joshua ROSE, 4. Pedj BOJIC, 5. Brad PORTER, 6. Patrick ZWAANSWIJK, 7. John HUTCHINSON, 8. Rostyn GRIFFITHS, 9. Nik MRDJA, 11. Oliver BOZANIC, 12. Matthew LEWIS, 14. Michael McGLINCHEY, 17. Chris DOIG, 18. Alex WILKINSON (c), 19. Matt SIMON, 20. Mathew RYAN (gk), 23. Adam KWASNIK, 30. Paul HENDERSON (gk)
*two to be omitted*
In: Brad PORTER (returns from injury), Matthew LEWIS (promoted)
Out: Patricio PEREZ (suspended – two weeks)
Unavailable: Jess VANSTRATTAN (knee – season)
Melbourne Victory squad: 1.Michael PETKOVIC (gk), 2.Kevin MUSCAT (c), 3.Mate DUGANDZIC, 5. Surat SUKHA, 6. Leigh BROXHAM, 8.Grant BREBNER, 11.Marvin ANGULO, 12.Rodrigo VARGAS,