Canberra United 0-3 Central Coast Mariners
By Ryan Miller-Woods (23/12/23)
Above: Wurigumula for Central Coast Mariners. Photo: Central Coast Mariners.
Central Coast Mariners achieved their third win of the season with a 3-0 win against Canberra United at McKellar Park. Once more, for Canberra, despite having created chances, it just wasn’t their day, and they remain at the bottom of the ladder.
Within the first 10 minutes of the match, Canberra were the ones that had made the most dangerous of the chances in attack as well as the majority of possession in that period of 55.4% but Central Coast looked strong defensively at that time. Overall it was an even encounter early in the proceedings.
In the 19th minute, Bianca Galic from outside the box had a great opportunity to open the scoring for Central Coast as her shot was saved by Canberra’s goalkeeper Coco Majstorovic and tipped up and off the crossbar. Despite the shot not going in, Galic’s control of the ball that set herself up for that chance at goal was very impressive.
Four minutes later, Vesna Milivojevic came very close to scoring her ninth goal of the season as her shot just went wide of the goal which kept Central Coast’s goalkeeper Sarah Langman on notice. Milivojevic’s control of the ball and eventual shot was yet another example of just how great she has been this season for Canberra with her making the simple things look brilliant.
In the 29th minute, Isabel Gomez provided an integral pass to Wurigumula who made a great run with the ball provided towards goal. She saw her chance and went for it as her powerful shot from outside the box went sailing past Majstorovic and into the top left corner for the opening goal of the match.
As the half progressed, the more it felt like Central Coast was slightly more dangerous in attack with the chances they had made as they could have gone further ahead if they weren’t denied by the crossbar.
Something that was apparent in the first half and continued into the second half was how Central Coast built up their passages in plays which really was good to watch and was a massive benefit to them with the chances created.
In the 69th minute, Central Coast doubled their lead thanks to a great through ball by Paige Hayward which was mistimed by Canberra’s Cannon Clough and found Wurigumula. She went around the goalkeeper in the box and slotted the ball into the back of the net for her third goal both of her A-League career.
Five minutes later, Central Coast all but sealed the three points for themselves as Peta Trimis made a great run into the box from a fast break and her shot went past Majstorovic and into the bottom right corner. It was the Mariners’ third goal of the match and Trimis’ first goal in the A-League Women.
Teams: CANBERRA UNITED (3-5-1-1): Majstorovic, Ilijoski, Nathan, Grove, Christopherson, Clark, Clough, Milivojevic, Flannery, Stanic-Floody, Heyman. Substitutes: Ritchie, McKenzie, Rojas, Jackson, Bertolissio.
CENTRAL COAST MARINERS (3-4-1-2): Langman, Wardlow, King, Irwin, Hayward, Gomez, Quilligan, Bryson, Galic, Badawiya, Wurigumula. Substitutes: Dumont, Rasmussen, Karrys-Stahl, Karambasis, Trimis.
Scorers: Wurigumula 29’, 69’. Trimis 74’.
Referee: Isabella Libri.
Attendance: 1,285.
Follow Impetus on social media – we’re @ImpetusFootball on Threads, Instagram, X (Twitter), TikTok, and Facebook.
impetusfootball.org 