Central Coast Mariners have trounced the visiting Perth Glory 4-1 at Bluetongue Stadium on Friday night. Sasho Petrovski, Mile Jedinak, Adrian Caceres and Matthew Osman each found the back of the net for the yellow and navy over ninety convincing minutes where the home side underlined the quality that had been so evident in their play in previous weeks.
In response, Perth's Olympic Games starlet Nikita Rukavytsya netted a second half goal from close range that turned out to be a mere consolation for the Glory, who have still yet to take a Hyundai A-League point from Bluetongue Stadium in the Hyundai A-League.
The Mariners' expert display was somewhat soured by the early substitution of guest player and goalkeeper Mark Bosnich, who limped from the Bluetongue Stadium turf after just seven minutes with a hamstring injury - the full extent of which will be established in the coming days.
Despite this early setback, the Mariners were irresistible in posting four past their opponents to extend their unbeaten run to four matches and move to within two points of Hyundai A-League leaders Sydney FC and the Melbourne Victory.
"Perth did reasonably well in the game until Sasho scored the first goal and from then on we just picked up the tempo and deservedly got three goals," said Mariners Football Manager Lawrie McKinna after the match.
"We spoke before the game about how good a team we were, I believe it, but we all just need to believe that we're a good team.
"This week we said to keep doing what we were doing, concentrate and we'll win the game and we did that tonight."
Goal scorer Jedinak joined Bosnich on the treatment table early in the second half after a harsh head clash with midfield counterpart James Robinson, but several stitches aside, the midfield ace is not expected to be sidelined for next Friday's trip to Adelaide.
"Now we're looking forward to going to Adelaide," said McKinna.
"If we get a result down there we're sitting well after the first round and considering the amount of senior players we've had missing, the boys that we have had have done very well for the club."
