SPORT Brilliant Brandon strikes a winner

IT was scruffy and scrappy, but Sydney FC is back to winning ways after a narrow 2-1 defeat of the Mariners at Central Coast Stadium.

A stunning goal from Brandon O’Neill earned Sydney its first win in three games, after falling behind to a goal from old boy Matt Simon in the first half.

In the end the victory owed everything to Sydney’s character, jemmying its way back into the contest, rather than any great fluency, but the value of the result – even against the side on the bottom of the table – shouldn’t be underestimated.

“We started slow, and it was a poor performance in the first half,” said Sydney coach Steve Corica. “The boys knew it and we were a bit better in the second half.

“Last week we played well and got nothing, this week we come away with the three points.”

From the start the Mariners were intent on roughing up their well-heeled visitors from Sydney, sometimes literally.

For long periods they won contest after contest – helped by the leniency of referee Daniel Elder – as the home side made light of their recent travails, but couldn’t capitalise at key moments.

“I’m not happy because we lost, and that’s the only emotion at the moment,” said a rueful Mariners boss Mike Mulvey. “But if you dig underneath that we’re on the right track.

“We took it to Sydney, one of the best teams in the league, but we were blighted again by mistakes.”

Mulvey railed against the penalty in the shadows of half-

“We were a bit better in the second half”

time that allowed Sydney back into the contest, but his side’s lapses at key moments cost them.

In the very first minute Matt Miller’s clever run and cross allowed Jack Clisby a chance at the far post that he couldn’t convert, and on 16 minutes the Mariners did have the lead.

Miller was involved again, gathering Jacob Melling’s sweeping pass out wide and crossing to the unmarked Simon – almost falling in the process, the Mariners captain sidefooted home.

Moments before, Simon had made a different impression on the contest, sliding in late for a tackle on Jop van der Linden that left the Dutch defender nursing both a sore ankle and a sense of injustice at the lack even of a foul.

Even so there was a remarkable passivity to Sydney’s football, its ball movement too slow in the face of the Mariners’ hassling. When Brosque did find space and cross low, Le Fondre’s scuffed shot hardly troubled Ben Kennedy.

For the second week in a row, though, Sydney was the beneficiary of an unnecessary penalty. Clisby was the culprit, diving in on Rhyan Grant without need and clipping the newly minted Socceroo’s heels. Le Fondre smashed the spotkick past Kennedy.