Central Coast coach Graham Arnold was a happy man after watching his side end a two-game losing streak with a dominant victory against Wellington Phoenix at Gosford on Saturday night.
Central Coast coach Graham Arnold was a happy man after watching his side end a two-game losing streak with a dominant 2-0 victory against the Wellington Phoenix at Gosford on Saturday night.
The Mariners went into the contest under pressure after back-to-back defeats against Brisbane and Melbourne Victory.
But the Mariners returned to their fluent best for much of the contest with youngster Tomas Rogic and veteran defender Patrick Zwaanswijk netting second half goals for the competition leaders at Bluetongue Stadium.
"Our football was first class," Arnold said.
"We had that many chances in the first half, but it's more about the performance.
"I was happy last week and we lost; it's how you learn from a loss that counts. That's the way we want to play, I couldn't have been happier with the effort."
Arnold was especially pleased with the contribution of Rogic and new recruit John Sutton, who played the majority of the match after just over a week of training with the Mariners.
Rogic said he was loving every minute of his time at the Mariners.
"Tonight was a great performance," the youngster said.
"To come in at half-time not three or four goals up was surprising but we came out in the second half and did what we had to."
Wellington coach Ricki Herbert and stand-in skipper Ben Sigmund admitted the Mariners deserved the points.
"I don't think we were really there tonight," Herbert said.
"We were probably lucky it was only 2-0. We were a little flat; they caught us on a bad day."
Sigmund agreed with his coach saying the Phoenix could have been out of the match by half-time.
"We came out better in the second half but still didn-t get anything going," Sigmund said.