Head Coach Darren Davies says his side will head south to Gosford to face the Mariners on Friday night (6:50pm KO QLD time) looking forward to the challenge that awaits.
Davies gave an honest assessment of his side’s performance in Saturday night’s loss to Perth Glory, praising the spirit shown by his players following a difficult opening half.
“Obviously we can only look forward, we couldn’t do anything about that first half so we spoke about a positive performance in the second half and I thought the boys did that,” Davies said.
“They didn’t give in, they kept going and they went right to the end and you know what we were beaten by a better side on the night.”
“So we hold our hands up, we’re going to dust ourselves down and we’ll be ready to go next week.”
Ruon Tongyik became the 148th player to represent the Club, making his debut at centre-back on Saturday night while youngsters Stefan Nigro, Dane Ingham, Joe Caletti, Dylan Wenzel-Halls, Nick D’Agostino and Jay Barnett all played a part.
Barnett is one of a handful of members of the Roar’s two-star Academy that have earned minutes in the Hyundai A-League & Davies believed Saturday’s match would prove a valuable learning experience for his younger brigade.
“We started with six Australian players aged 22 and under so we’re giving youngsters game time,” Davies said.
“It was an experience for them this evening, it’s a learning moment for them but they’ll be better for it.”
Davies added that nothing had changed for his side and the same driving desire to earn all three points in every game will remain the same through to the end of the season.
“We go out to win every single game and last week we did. We were second best on the night [against the Glory], we’re hurting, but come training we’ll be fully focused and moving forward to next weekend,” Davies concluded.
MATCH DETAILS
Hyundai A-League 2018/19 – Round 20: Central Coast Mariners v Brisbane Roar
Central Coast Stadium, Gosford
Friday, 22 February (6:50pm KO QLD time)
