Apia Leichhardt vs Central Coast Mariners at Leichhardt Oval, Lilyfield
Result: Apia 0 - Mariners 6
Mariners dominate FFA Cup Quarter Final
After a quick turn around after beating the Wanderers just three days before, our Mariners dominated over Apia Leichhardt to advance to the FFA Cup semi-finals.
Going into the contest, the NPL NSW side were hoping to repeat an upset after they knocked the Wanderers out of the FFA Cup in their Round of 16 clash.
Unfortunately for the home side and their fans it only took 8 minutes for Max Ballard to score his first senior goal with a long range goal from outside the penalty box after a smart assist by Joshua Nisbet.
The Mariners didn't have to wait long for a second with Dan Hall getting his first goal after a bit of a scramble from short range.
The sides went to the sheds with the score at 2-0 to the Mariners favour.
For the home side, matters would only get worse for Apia in the second half. In the 55th minute Birighitti launched a goal kick directly down the ground where Moresche took possession of the ball, beat the Apia goalkeeper and scored into a empty goal to make it 3-nil.
At the 60th minute, coach Nick Montogomery brought two attacking players in Tsekenis and Garang Kuol (brother of Alou) into the game. This paid dividends very quickly with Garang scoring his first goal seven minutes latter. The 17-year old received a smart pass where he kept a defender at bay using his body to slot the ball past the Apia keeper.
In similar circumstances, Matthew Hatch was brought on late in the game scoring a miraculous and somewhat unexpected goal four minutes after coming onto the field. Hatch received the ball out wide on the left and struck a left-footed half-volley that saw the ball curve past the keeper into the top right-hand corner of the goal.
The scoring did not stop there. Near the end of normal time, Noah Smith become the fourth player on the night to score their first mariners senior goal.