By Lachlan Mitchell
Melbourne City’s frantic Covid-affected-fixture was one again brought to the fore with two games in four days.
Melbourne first had to contend with the bottom-placed Central Coast Mariners at home.
The Mariners looked like they were going to cause a massive boil-over when they scored their first in the 44th minute through Beni N’Kolo.
The N’Kolo goal came as a massive surprise after City had dominated proceedings until the deadlock was broken.
Melbourne quickly fought back after young-gun Marco Tilio was brought down in the box during injury time in the first half.
Jamie Maclaren did his due diligence slotting home the penalty just before the main break.
City came out after the break and quickly found themselves firing an assault at the Mariners net. An Aiden O’Neil scoop found the in-form Florin Berenguer who drilled the ball to the far post for City’s second of the night.
The Marines continued the fight and levelled the score up again through Oliver Bozanic. The Central Coast captain found himself on the end of a low cross from Jacob Farrell setting up his sides second of the match.
City continued to play the game in their attacking half, and found the winner through Tilio who caressed a ball past the keeper after a defensive fumble saw the ball spill loose.
The game didn’t end there after a controversial no penalty call was not given for the Mariners, after it appeared that Melbourne City’s Mathew Leckie made contact inside the box.
Video assistant referee was used and could not find the contact on a second look. The outrage from the decision saw Mariner’s goal-keeping coach Jess Van Stratten awarded a red-card on the sidelines.
The clash ending in a very heated 3-2 victory for Melbourne City.
City travelled north from their new and improved Casey Field’s training base to play Sydney FC in a Grand-Final-rematch.
Jamie Maclaren once again proved why he is the best player in Australia, after he found himself in space against the run of play.
The striker had the calmness to spot Mathew Leckie who set up his sides first after a defensive clash saw the ball spill over the line off a Sydney defended.
Sydney always looked threatening and squared the ledger through Milos Ninkovich. The veteran used his experience to find space for his sides first.
The game looked like the deadlock wouldn’t be broken as injury time extended to the 97th minute.
But Leckie used his left to fire a low ball from outside the box to ricochet of the post for the winner.
The goal sealing City’s victory (2-1) and their place at the top of the table.
