A wet and wild affair in Auckland brought at close to the Black Knights’ premier plate defence, with Central Coast holding on to win 1-0.
This game had almost everything; 14,000 plus fans in the stadium, the national anthem played before the game, VAR controversy, and a lengthy weather delay. All that was missing was a result in Auckland’s favour.
Auckland needed said result to keep their premiers plate hopes alive, and with Central Coast already eliminated from finals contention, the visitors entered proceedings without any pressure.
Auckland moved back to their traditional 4-2-3-1 formation with Jake Girdwood-Reich returning to the heart of defence and Michael Woud getting back between the sticks.
It was the Black Knights with the early chances, as all the action was in the Mariners’ half, with a few penalty shouts not going Auckland’s way.
The referee was sent to VAR 15 minutes in with James Donachie catching Sam Cosgrove in the air, and then leaving a boot in the back of the striker on the way down. To the disappointment of the crowd, the foul wasn’t upgraded to a red card.
From the resulting free kick, Jesee Randall forced a top save from Redmayne, from a similar position to Lachie Brooks’ effort from last week
Despite the early Auckland pressure, Central Coast opened the scoring with Ali Auglah finishing off a tidy counter-attacking move, the Mariners capitalising on an Auckland mistake. It was a move that perhaps should never have been allowed to start in the first place, an obvious Auckland corner given as a Mariners’ goal kick.
Auckland kept the pressure on before thunder and lightning crashed down at Go Media Stadium, with the referee pausing play 35 minutes in due to the lightning delay.
The match got back underway after a 45-minute delay with Auckland on the front foot, but they couldn’t find a breakthrough before halftime.
The second half opened with more of the same. Auckland had most of the ball but failed to create the opportunities needed to test Andrew Redmayne in the Mariners’ goal.
The best opportunity of the second half fell to Auckland with twenty minutes to go as the Black Knights were denied twice from close range from a corner. Redmayne’s reflexes stop the first effort, with Donachie, who probably shouldn’t have been on the pitch, stopping May’s follow-up on the line.
The crowd tried their best to get behind the home side as they chased the equaliser in the final ten minutes plus stoppage time to keep their premiers plate hopes alive.
It wasn’t to be., The final whistle blew after five minutes of added time, bringing Auckland’s reign as premier plate holders to an end, with the loss resulting in the Newcastle Jets being this season’s premiers.
The loss for Auckland means they will travel to Sydney next week keen to secure second place and their automatic semi-final bid.
Attendance: 14,019
Player of the Match: Michael Woud
Next Match: Away at Sydney FC for the last game of the regular season. Kick-off is on Sunday at 5pm.
Favourite non-Auckland FC Shirt seen in the crowd: RB Leipzig home shirt
