2007–08 Central Coast Mariners FC season

Central Coast Mariners

2007–08 season
Chairman	Lyall Gorman
Manager	Lawrie McKinna
Stadium	Bluetongue Stadium
A-League regular season	Premiers
A-League finals	Runners-up
Pre-Season Cup	4th
Top goalscorer	League: John Aloisi (7) All: Sasho Petrovski (9)
Highest home attendance	36,354 vs Newcastle Jets (24 February 2008)
← 2006–07 2008–09 →

The 2007–08 season was the 3rd season of competitive football played by Central Coast Mariners. The Mariners ended the season as A-League Premiers after topping the table in the regular season, but runners-up in the Championship after losing to local rivals Newcastle Jets in the 2008 A-League Grand Final.

In the transfer window the club signed experienced striker Sasho Petrovski and former Adelaide United midfielder Greg Owens. Left back Dean Heffernan also returned to the club after completing a loan spell with 1. FC Nürnberg. Club captain Noel Spencer was released, joining Sydney FC.

After a mixed pre-season, finishing fourth in the 2007 A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup, the Mariners began the 2007–08 A-League in good form, undefeated for their first five games. Winless runs in October and January saw a number of clubs threaten Central Coast at the top of the table. This included a 5–4 loss to Sydney FC in December, breaking the record for goals in an A-League match. The mid-season addition of Socceroo John Aloisi proved successful, with the striker scoring a team-high seven league goals. A win over Wellington Phoenix in the final game of the regular season secured a first Premiership for the club, ahead of Newcastle Jets on goal difference. In the Finals Series, the Mariners advanced to the Grand Final by defeating the Jets 3–2 over two legs. The Jets, however, claimed the Championship with a 1–0 win in controversial circumstances at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Background

The Mariners ended the previous season in sixth, missing out on the Finals Series.

Transfers

In

No.	Position	Player	Transferred from	Fee	Date	Ref
22	FW	Sasho Petrovski	Sydney FC	Free	12 February 2007	[1]
23	MF	Mile Jedinak	Sydney United	Free	26 February 2007	[2]
12	MF	Greg Owens	Adelaide United	Free	12 March 2007	[3]
8	DF	Dean Heffernan	1. FC Nürnberg	Loan return	6 June 2007	[4]
30	GK	Andrew Redmayne	Australian Institute of Sport	Free	19 June 2007	[5]
4	MF	Ian McAndrew	Central Coast Lightning	Free	1 August 2007	[6]
24	FW	Damian Mori	Adelaide City	Free	21 September 2007	[7]
25	FW	John Aloisi	Free agent	N/A	19 October 2007	[8]
26	DF	Alvin Ceccoli	Free agent	N/A	3 January 2008	[9]

Out

No.	Position	Player	Transferred to	Fee	Date	Ref
14	DF	Vuko Tomasevic	Free agent	N/A	25 January 2007	[10]
2	DF	Wayne O'Sullivan	Free agent	N/A	25 January 2007	[10]
4	MF	Noel Spencer	Sydney FC	Free	16 February 2007	[11]
8	MF	Jamie McMaster	Free agent	N/A	18 April 2007	[12]
12	FW	Stewart Petrie	Free agent	N/A	18 April 2007	[12]
1	GK	John Crawley	Retired	N/A	19 June 2007	[5]
24	FW	Damian Mori	Free agent	N/A	13 October 2007	[13]

Pre-season

Central Coast Mariners v Malaysia

22 May 2007 Friendly	Central Coast Mariners	3–0	Malaysia	Lisarow
	Hutchinson  55' Woodcock  78' Owens  86'	Report		Stadium: Pluim Park Attendance: 2,000 Referee: James Lewis

A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup

Group stage

Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	BP	Pts
Central Coast Mariners	3	2	1	0	6	1	3	10
Queensland Roar	3	1	2	0	3	2	1	6
Wellington Phoenix	3	1	0	2	4	4	2	5
Sydney FC	3	0	1	2	0	6	0	1

Central Coast Mariners v Wellington Phoenix

14 July 2007 1	Central Coast Mariners	2–0	Wellington Phoenix	Gosford
18:00	Wilkinson  3' Kwasnik  32'	Report		Stadium: Bluetongue Stadium Attendance: 8,136 Referee: Strebre Delovski

Central Coast Mariners v Queensland Roar

21 July 2007 2	Central Coast Mariners	1–1	Queensland Roar	Orange
15:00	Boogaard  6'	Report	Lynch  60'	Stadium: Wade Park Attendance: 3,531 Referee: James Lewis

Sydney FC v Central Coast Mariners

29 July 2007 3	Sydney FC	0–3	Central Coast Mariners	Canberra
15:00		Report	Osman  36' Kwasnik  44' Gumprecht  51'	Stadium: Canberra Stadium Attendance: 5,735 Referee: Ben Williams

Playoffs

Central Coast Mariners v Perth Glory

4 August 2007 Semi-final	Central Coast Mariners	2–3	Perth Glory	Gosford
18:00	Mrdja  43' Petrovski  90'	Report	Dragičević  23' Bertos  55' Tarka  78'	Stadium: Bluetongue Stadium Attendance: 5,967 Referee: Ben Williams

Central Coast Mariners v Queensland Roar

12 August 2007 3rd place playoff	Central Coast Mariners	1–3	Queensland Roar	Gosford
16:00	Simon  9'	Report	Milicic  30' Marchinho  48' Reinaldo  86'	Stadium: Bluetongue Stadium Attendance: 3,500 Referee: James Lewis

2007-08 Hyundai A-League fixtures

Sydney FC v Central Coast Mariners

24 August 2007	Sydney FC	0 : 1	Central Coast Mariners	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney
20:00 UTC+10		Report Summary	Petrovski  7'	Attendance: 18,457 Referee: Peter Green

Central Coast Mariners v Wellington Phoenix

31 August 2007	Central Coast Mariners	3 : 0	Wellington Phoenix	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
20:00 UTC+10	Mrdja  9', 35' Kwasnik  13'	Report Summary		Attendance: 9,052 Referee: Peter Green

Queensland Roar v Central Coast Mariners

6 September 2007	Queensland Roar	0 : 1	Central Coast Mariners	Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
20:00 UTC+10		Report Summary	Kwasnik  55'	Attendance: 8,815 Referee: Mark Shield

Melbourne Victory v Central Coast Mariners

16 September 2007	Melbourne Victory	0 : 0	Central Coast Mariners	Telstra Dome, Melbourne
17:00 UTC+10		Report Summary	Vidmar  90+2'	Attendance: 27,351 Referee: Mark Shield

Central Coast Mariners v Perth Glory

23 September 2007	Central Coast Mariners	1 : 0	Perth Glory	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
19:00 UTC+10	Petrovski  80'	Report Summary		Attendance: 9,274 Referee: Craig Zetter

Adelaide United v Central Coast Mariners

30 September 2007	Adelaide United	2 : 1	Central Coast Mariners	Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide
16:30 UTC+9:30	Djite  19', 88'	Report Summary	Petrovski  37' Vidmar  65', 79'	Attendance: 11,019 Referee: Matthew Breeze

Central Coast Mariners v Newcastle Jets

7 October 2007	Central Coast Mariners	1 : 1	Newcastle Jets	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
17:00 UTC+10	Pondeljak  62'	Report Summary	Bridge  82'	Attendance: 12,622 Referee: Matthew Breeze

Central Coast Mariners v Queensland Roar

14 October 2007	Central Coast Mariners	0 : 1	Queensland Roar	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
17:00 UTC+10	Porter  31'	Report Summary	McCloughan  5'	Attendance: 8,113 Referee: Peter O'Leary

Wellington Phoenix v Central Coast Mariners

21 October 2007	Wellington Phoenix	1 : 2	Central Coast Mariners	Westpac Stadium, Wellington
17:00 UTC+12	Elrich  24'	Report Summary	Heffernan  16' Petrovski  90+1'	Attendance: 10,560 Referee: Peter Green

Sydney FC v Central Coast Mariners

28 October 2007	Sydney FC	3 : 2	Central Coast Mariners	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney
15:00 UTC+10	Brosque  16', 26' Popovic  32'	Report Summary	Hutchinson  27', 56'	Attendance: 17,652 Referee: Mark Shield

Central Coast Mariners v Melbourne Victory

4 November 2007	Central Coast Mariners	2 : 1	Melbourne Victory	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
17:00 UTC+11	Petrovski  83',  73', 90' Pondeljak  88'	Report Summary	Keenan  22' Hernández  77' Vargas  90'	Attendance: 11,354 Referee: Mark Shield

Central Coast Mariners v Adelaide United

10 November 2007	Central Coast Mariners	2 : 0	Adelaide United	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
17:00 UTC+11	J.Aloisi  48' (pen.), 59'	Report Summary		Attendance: 11,680 Referee: Simon Przydacz

Perth Glory v Central Coast Mariners

18 November 2007	Perth Glory	0 : 1	Central Coast Mariners	Members Equity Stadium, Perth
19:00 UTC+9		Summary	Owens  13' Jedinak  83', 88'	Attendance: 7,310 Referee: Craig Zetter

Newcastle Jets v Central Coast Mariners

25 November 2007	Newcastle Jets	0 : 0	Central Coast Mariners	EnergyAustralia Stadium, Newcastle
17:00 UTC+11		Report Summary		Attendance: 14,169 Referee: Mark Shield

Queensland Roar v Central Coast Mariners

9 December 2007	Queensland Roar	2 : 1	Central Coast Mariners	Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
18:00 UTC+10	Vidmar  21' (o.g.) McKay  28'	Report Summary	J.Aloisi  13'	Attendance: 16,442 Referee: Ben Williams

Adelaide United v Central Coast Mariners

14 December 2007	Adelaide United	1 : 2	Central Coast Mariners	Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide
19:30 UTC+10:30	Agostino  70'	Report Summary	J.Aloisi  24' Petrovski  48'	Attendance: 11,123 Referee: Peter Green

Central Coast Mariners v Sydney FC

22 December 2007[14]	Central Coast Mariners	4 : 5	Sydney FC	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
19:00 UTC+11	Jedinak  3' J.Aloisi  16' Vukovic  17' Owens  63' (pen.) Kwasnik  86'  90+4'	Report Summary	Fyfe  33' McFlynn  50' Biddle  71' Santalab  76' Talay  90+5' (pen.)	Attendance: 17,514 Referee: Matthew Breeze

Central Coast Mariners v Melbourne Victory

31 December 2007	Central Coast Mariners	2 : 5	Melbourne Victory	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
18:00 UTC+11	Jedinak  32' J.Aloisi  63'	Report Summary	Caceres  4' Allsopp  23', 61' Thompson  36' Muscat  43' (pen.)	Attendance: 18,686 Referee: Mark Shield

Perth Glory v Central Coast Mariners

6 January 2008	Perth Glory	1 : 1	Central Coast Mariners	Members Equity Stadium, Perth
19:00 UTC+9	Rukavytsya  69'	Report Summary	Hutchinson  38'	Attendance: 6,727 Referee: Strebre Delovski

Central Coast Mariners v Newcastle Jets

12 January 2008	Central Coast Mariners	1 : 2	Newcastle Jets	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
19:00 UTC+11	Kwasnik  9'	Report Summary	Holland  6' J. Griffiths  52'	Attendance: 19,238 Referee: Matthew Breeze

Central Coast Mariners v Wellington Phoenix

19 January 2008	Central Coast Mariners	2 : 0	Wellington Phoenix	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
19:00 UTC+11	Aloisi  52' Kwasnik  90+4'	Report Summary		Attendance: 9,849 Referee: Kevin Docherty

2007-08 Finals series

Newcastle Jets v Central Coast Mariners

27 January 2008 Major SF Leg 1	Newcastle Jets	2 : 0	Central Coast Mariners	EnergyAustralia Stadium, Newcastle
18:00 UTC+11	A. Griffiths  22' J. Griffiths  85' (pen.)	Report Summary		Attendance: 22,960 Referee: Matthew Breeze

Central Coast Mariners v Newcastle Jets

10 February 2008 Major SF Leg 2	Central Coast Mariners	3 : 0 (a.e.t.)	Newcastle Jets	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
18:00 UTC+11	Kwasnik  37' Petrovski  74', 95'	Summary		Attendance: 19,112 Referee: Ben Williams

Central Coast Mariners v Newcastle Jets

24 February 2008 Grand Final	Central Coast Mariners	0 : 1	Newcastle Jets	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney
17:00 UTC+11	Vukovic  90+5'	Summary	Bridge  64'	Attendance: 36,354 Referee: Mark Shield

Home-and-Away Season

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Central Coast Mariners	21	10	4	7	30	25	+5	34	2009 AFC Champions League Group stage
2	Newcastle Jets (C)	21	9	7	5	25	21	+4	34
3	Sydney FC	21	8	8	5	28	24	+4	32	2008 Pan-Pacific Championship
4	Queensland Roar	21	8	7	6	25	21	+4	31	2008 A-League Finals Series
5	Melbourne Victory	21	6	9	6	29	29	0	27
6	Adelaide United	21	6	8	7	31	29	+2	26
7	Perth Glory	21	4	8	9	27	34	−7	20
8	Wellington Phoenix	21	5	5	11	25	37	−12	20

Updated to games played on 20 January 2008
Source: theworldgame.sbs.com.au
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
¹First place through to fourth place qualify for the 2008 A-League Finals Series.
²First place qualifies for the 2009 AFC Champions League Group stage.
³Winning the 2008 A-League Grand Final earns qualification for the 2009 AFC Champions League Group stage, unless the Grand Final winners are also first place, in which case the Grand Final runner up qualifies.
⁴Wellington Phoenix cannot qualify for the 2009 AFC Champions League as they are not recognised as an AFC club.

Player statistics

Key

No. = Squad number Pos = Playing position Nat. = Nationality Apps = Appearances

GK = Goalkeeper DF = Defender MF = Midfielder FW = Forward

= Yellow cards = Red cards

Numbers in parentheses denote appearances as substitute. Players with number struck through and marked left the club during the playing season.

No.	Pos.	Nat.	Name	A-League		A-League finals		Pre-Season Cup		Total		Discipline
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	GK	AUS	Matthew Trott	4 (1)	0	0	0	2	0	6 (1)	0	0	0
2	FW	AUS	Matt Simon	4 (14)	0	0 (2)	0	1	1	5 (16)	1	0	0
3	DF	AUS	Paul O'Grady	2 (4)	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	2 (5)	0	2	0
4	MF	AUS	Ian McAndrew	0 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	0	0
5	MF	AUS	Brad Porter	5 (3)	0	0	0	0 (4)	0	5 (7)	0	0	1
6	MF	GER	André Gumprecht	8 (6)	0	0 (3)	0	5	1	13 (9)	1	3	0
7	MF	AUS	John Hutchinson	18	3	3	0	4	0	25	3	7	0
8	DF	AUS	Dean Heffernan	15 (1)	1	0	0	2 (1)	0	17 (2)	1	7	0
9	FW	AUS	Nik Mrdja	3	2	0	0	3 (2)	1	6 (2)	3	1	0
10	MF	AUS	Tom Pondeljak	13 (5)	2	2 (1)	0	2 (2)	0	17 (8)	2	0	0
11	DF	AUS	Damien Brown	7 (1)	0	0	0	3	0	10 (1)	0	2	0
12	MF	AUS	Greg Owens	10 (2)	2	1 (1)	0	0 (1)	0	11 (4)	2	2	0
13	DF	AUS	Tony Vidmar	15	0	3	0	1 (2)	0	19 (2)	0	6	2
15	DF	AUS	Andrew Clark	12 (5)	0	0 (2)	0	1	0	13 (7)	0	5	0
16	DF	AUS	Nigel Boogaard	13 (1)	0	3	0	4 (1)	1	20 (2)	1	5	0
17	MF	AUS	Matthew Osman	6 (1)	0	0	0	5	1	11 (1)	1	0	0
18	DF	AUS	Alex Wilkinson	12	0	3	0	5	1	20	1	1	0
19	FW	AUS	Adam Kwasnik	12 (7)	5	3	1	5	2	20 (7)	8	2	0
20	GK	AUS	Danny Vukovic	17	0	3	0	3	0	23	0	1	2
22	FW	AUS	Sasho Petrovski	18 (1)	6	3	2	4	1	25 (1)	9	11	1
23	MF	AUS	Mile Jedinak	19	2	3	0	5	0	27	2	8	1
24	FW	AUS	Damian Mori	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0
25	DF	AUS	John Aloisi	12	7	3	0	0	0	15	7	4	0
26	DF	AUS	Alvin Ceccoli	3	0	3	0	0	0	6	0	0	0
30	GK	AUS	Andrew Redmayne	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

References

1. "Petrovski signs with Mariners". News.com.au. 12 February 2007. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
2. "Jedi signs permanent deal for 2007–08" (Press release). Central Coast Mariners FC. 26 February 2007.
3. "Mariners snap up Owens". The World Game. 12 March 2007. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
4. "Heffernan returns to the Central Coast". ESPN FC. 6 June 2007. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
5. "Out with the old, in with the new" (Press release). Central Coast Mariners FC. 19 June 2007.
6. "Mariners sign teenage defender". Fox Sports. 1 August 2007. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
7. Smithies, Tom (21 September 2007). "Mariners land old boy Mori". =Fox Sports. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
8. Henderson, Philip (19 October 2007). "Mariners confirm signing John Aloisi". ESPN FC. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
9. "Ceccoli back as 'ancient mariner'". Fox Sports. 3 January 2008. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
10. "Mariners axe A-League skipper Spencer". Sydney Morning Herald. 25 January 2007. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
11. Cockerill, Mike (16 February 2007). "Mariner finds his way to Sydney for the Asian experience". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
12. "New deals for Mariners duo". The World Game. 18 April 2007. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
13. "Pacesetters Central Coast Mariners are "down to the bare bones"". The Daily Telegraph. 13 October 2007.
14. Match postponed due to heavy rain affecting pitch conditions.

External links