Sydney hold on to down Mariners
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Sydney FC captain Steve Corica bagged a double as his side beat Central Coast (AAP: Sergio Dionisio)
Sydney FC moved to the top of the A-League ladder with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Central Coast in tonight's round two match-up at Bluetongue Stadium in Gosford.
Sydney's first win of the season lifts them to four competition points and ahead of Adelaide United, at least until the Reds tackle the Roar on Sunday evening.
Leading at the end of regulation time, Sydney was forced to survive a nervous four minutes of extra time as it held off a Mariners outfit also searching for its first win after last week's draw with Newcastle.
Two goals to grizzled veteran Steve Corica handed the visitors a handy 2-1 buffer at half-time, but Sasho Petrovski's second goal of the night levelled the scores in the 67th minute.
Corica, a veteran of the Australian football scene since debuting for Marconi in 1990, opened the scoring in just the sixth minute to hand the visitors an early lead, but a penalty seven minutes later gave the Mariners the equaliser.
Jacob Timpano's interference on Petrovski in the box was deemed illegal, and the Mariners marksman banged his spot kick into the back of the net to level scores 1-1.
Sydney's reply was quick, however, with Corica lining up his second one minute later after going one-on-one with Mariners shot-stopper Danny Vukovic.
Neither side could breach the defence in the opening 20 minutes of the second stanza, but a brilliant sliding kick from Petrovski pulled the Mariners back into the match with more than 20 minutes remaining.
Both sides fought tooth and nail to take the lead but it was another piece of play from Corica that allowed Sydney to get their noses in front.
They Sydney skipper won a free kick after he was taken down by Nigel Boogaard, and Shannon Cole buried the resulting free kick for the match-winning goal nine minutes from time.
Sydney FC 3 - S Corica ('6, '14), S Cole ('81)
Central Coast 2 - S Petrovski ('13 [pen], '67)
