Above: Emily Husband speaks to the media. Image: Central Coast Mariners.
By Ryan Miller-Woods (26/4/24).
The media heard from Central Coast Mariners’ Annabel Martin and Head Coach Emily Husband ahead of their upcoming semi-final second leg against Sydney FC on Saturday.
Despite the 1-0 defeat last week in Gosford, the Mariners are still very much in with a great chance of making next week’s Grand Final in their first season back in the A-League Women. Given how both sides have played this season, it really sets up the spectacle of this weekend’s match against Sydney with it all to play for.
Whatever happens this weekend for the Mariners, Emily Husband can feel very satisfied with how her first season with the club and as head coach in the A-League Women has gone which with the playing style that she’s implemented has brought the best from a lot of the players within her squad and with that has deservedly got the opportunity to lead the club to a Grand Final at the first time of asking in Central Coast’s return to the competition.
When asked what she feels the team learnt from last week’s match against Sydney FC ahead of the second leg, Husband said, “reflecting on the game, we were probably victims of our own mistakes, not just for the goal but multiple errors leading up to that where Sydney FC had opportunities, and we’ve got to really look to minimise those in such important games. We’ve worked massively on possession and things like that during the week and identified areas where we can continue to hurt them. We’re just really excited to get stuck into this second leg.”
The three previous times both sides have faced each other this season have been absolute battles. When asked whether she expects it to be much of the same this weekend, Husband said, “of course! Obviously, there’s a reason why (Sydney) are where they are, and they’ve been a successful team over the years. So that’s something we’ve got to consider but we’ve shown that we can beat them before, and I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that we can beat them again.”
When asked to reflect on how this first season as head coach with the club and in the league has been for her with potentially a spot in the Grand Final, Husband said, “this is somewhere I’ve wanted to be for a long time and you put the hours on the pitch for these moments, so as much as you have a tendency to think about everything in such deep context, I think you sometimes have got to take a step back and still enjoy them. I’ve absolutely loved my first year and I’ve been so lucky to have the group of girls I have.”
“Nothing is achievable by yourself and every single person in the group has been valuable in order to get us to this position, so I’m really thankful and hopefully, it continues.”
Someone who will be important in the match is Annabel Martin whose contributions have been very impressive throughout this campaign for Central Coast. When asked what she and the team have learnt from last week’s match against Sydney FC ahead of the second leg, Martin said, “sometimes games go like that, anything can kind of happen. I thought we created quite a few chances and on the opposite side of that, I thought they did as well. We’ve played them three times this year and every game has been a battle and I think tomorrow’s going to be no different, so it’s going to come down to what team takes their chances best.”
Central Coast were one of the best teams defensively where during the regular season conceded the second least goals with 25, only behind tomorrow’s opponents Sydney FC who conceded just 20 goals.
When asked what it’s been like within the defensive unit this season, Martin said, “we’re just a bunch of battlers back there, to be honest, always putting our body on the line. Different players can come in and out of that back four. Obviously, losing Taren (King) was a big loss but having other players step up into that role as well, we’ve gone from a three-back to a four-back, so I think it’s just next man up kind of mentality and I think we really embraced that back there.
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