Derby delight as the Mariners put four past the Jets

The Central Coast Mariners have decimated their fierce local rivals the Newcastle Jets 4-1 in sweltering conditions at Gosford tonight to leave their fans dreaming of finals football.

Andre Gumprecht opened the scoring after just four minutes before Damien Brown added a second and John Hutchinson helped himself to a brace, rendering Vaughan Coveny's late strike all but meaningless.

Central Coast manager Lawrie McKinna was able to welcome back the trio of Dean Heffernan, Tom Pondeljak and Paul O'Grady into his squad while the Jets were forced to bring Labinot Haliti into their starting line up in place of star striker Ante Milicic.

In perhaps the home side's pivotal clash of the season the Mariners were boosted by a record attendance of 11,612, and they got off to the best possible start by breaching the visiting defence with their very first attack.

In the absence of Pondeljak in the starting eleven, Gumprecht was left with the bulk of the attacking responsibility from midfield and after being fed by Wayne O'Sullivan he made no mistake, taking a touch to steady himself before burying his strike past Liam Reddy for a 1-0 advantage.

The Central Coast were easily the brighter side in the early exchanges and they could've doubled their lead after Hutchinson's intelligent cutback only for Stewart Petrie's strong volley to be held well by Reddy.

An enforced drinks break after 20 minutes showed the full extent of the conditions facing the players and gave the Jets a chance to regroup before attempting to get a foothold in the match.

And while they did carve out a half-chance for Matt Thompson any renewed optimism was quickly extinguished as a touch of fortune helped the Mariners go two up after 34 minutes.

Brown lined up a free kick on the left from 25 yards and his curling effort bypassed everyone to deceive the keeper and nestle in the back of the net.

Richard Money would've been wondering how the deficit wasn't halved seconds later as Coveny broke free into the box, but his blistering shot struck not only the crossbar but then the inside of the post as a bewildering series of events left the score at 2-0.

Nick Carle had been having a quiet game but reminded the Gosford crowd of his undoubted ability with a slaloming run, however his weak right footed attempt failed to match the excellence of the build up.

The attacking verve of the hosts belied the weather and another quick fire attack saw Gumprecht deftly play in the onrushing Petrie whose strike crashed into the side netting.

It would require colossal endeavour from the Jets to get back into the game and that task was made far more daunting in the 56th minute when Mateo Corbo lashed out with an elbow on Noel Spencer, referee Mark Shield confidently brandishing a red card in the direction of the Newcastle man to all but end the match as a contest.

With a two goal lead and a man advantage the match descended into a cruise for the Mariners who further compounded the Jets misery with a magical third courtesy of the in form John Hutchinson.

Receiving the ball on the right wing Hutchinson jinked inside one defender then another before ruthlessly striking a venomous left footed shot past a helpless Reddy to bring the record crowd to their collective feet in appreciation.

Adam Kwasnik on as a substitute then displayed some quick feet before firing a cross to the in form Hutchinson only for the makeshift striker to sweep over with his less favoured right foot.

Pondeljak has also entered the fray for his first match back from injury and cemented his place at the top of the assists chart with a neat cut back to a waiting Hutchinson who calmly clipped the ball home to make the score line a resounding 4-0.

Perhaps the perfect nature of the night for the Central Coast was somewhat damaged when Coveny stooped to nod in from a Steve Eagleton cross, but it was certainly the definition of a consolation goal with only five minutes remaining as the Mariners ended the match dominant winners at 4-1.

The Mariners now move into the top four just one point before their local rivals and will welcome the bottom placed New Zealand Knights to Gosford next week, while the Jets will hope for a dramatic change of form for their immensely difficult trip to Sydney.

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