Victory snatch loss from jaws of victory

Melbourne coach Ernie Merrick was devastated that after dominating the game with 10 men and scoring first, the Victory went home with nothing. Central Coast coach Lawrie McKinna knew he had dodged a hail of bullets.

The Victory had played with 10 men from the 21st minute, when Joe Keenan was sent off by referee Mark Shield for a studs-up tackle that hit Central Coast's Andrew Clark in the side of the chest. Instead of folding, the visitors adjusted well and deserved their lead when Carlos Hernandez scored in the 77th minute.

Strangely, the Mariners had lacked intensity until then, but the Melbourne goal roused the home side and they came at the Victory in waves over the closing stages. Central Coast's goals came from Sasho Petrovski, in the 82nd minute, and Tom Pondeljak, in the 88th, and the Mariners were out of jail.

After the scoring was finished, there were two more dismissals. Melbourne's Roddy Vargas received a straight red for lashing out and hitting Petrovski in the stomach, in the 90th minute, after Petrovski had tugged his shirt. Petrovski, who had been booked for an earlier foul, received his second yellow for the shirt-tug.

Merrick was stunned by the loss, saying: "I'm speechless, to be honest. We worked hard through the whole game, we had two blokes sent off ? I'm not going to comment on red cards, that's the ref's decision, but it looks like we're an undisciplined team and we're not.

"We played very well. I'm not sure if it's the best we've played all season, but we played very well, and that's why it's hard to take. We were unlucky not to score a few more. It's a pretty cruel game."

Melbourne, the defending premiers, dropped two spots to sixth after the loss and have alarming injury and suspension problems. But the Mariners also have worries in those areas and McKinna made the point that they had come through a difficult period pretty well.

The win took Central Coast back to the top of the competition table, by three points.

"We should have been two or three goals up while they still had 11 men, but after they went down to 10 men, we struggled a bit," McKinna said. "We were a bit pedestrian and stopped defending as a unit.

"But we came back well towards the end and Tom's goal was tremendous. He could have screwed that ball anywhere, but it was a fantastic finish."

Melbourne relied heavily on trying to feed front man Archie Thompson, who was playing wide in an attempt to find as much space as possible. Thompson tried hard to come up with a goal, but it wasn't his night for scoring. Still, it looked like being the Victory's night after Hernandez scored.

Greg Owens, in the second minute, and Petrovski, in the 31st, hit the post for the Mariners, but as the game wore on Central Coast became considerably less threatening. It was only after Melbourne scored that the home side lifted the pace of the game and made their numerical advantage count.

The Victory deserved to get something out of the game and their captain, Kevin Muscat, summed up the situation perfectly.

"For most of the game we were in control and relatively comfortable, so to come away with nothing is disappointing," Muscat said. "I don't know whether to laugh or cry."