The Central Coast Mariners have gone six points clear on top of the table thanks to a 3-1 win against Adelaide United at Bluetongue Stadium on Friday night.
The Mariners dominated possession in the opening half with chances coming at regular intervals with four coming in the opening quarter of the match.
For all that domination Adelaide United hit the lead, against the run of play, when Daniel Bowles hit a shot towards goal that took a deflection off of Ollie Bozanic and headed in to the net to stun the crowd and give the visitors the lead in the 39th minute.
The Mariners had an incredible 13 shots in the first half but were much too wasteful, even inventing ways to miss the net, including Daniel McBreen hitting a shot in to the back of Bozanic.
Eugene Galekovic had another impressive performance in goals while McBreen went close again as he saw another of his efforts come off the crossbar as a frustrated Mariners side went in to the break 1-0 down.
The Mariners came out clearly fired up for the second half and continued in much the same pattern as the first as they dominated the match again.
Frustration for the Mariners still continued until the addition of Mitchell Duke in the 61st minute seemed to add that goal scoring threat that was missed.
Six minutes after his entry Duke found an equalizer after some neat work allowed him to score with a solid finish.
Moments later Duke could have had a second but was denied by a handball from Bowles which allowed McBreen to step up to the spot only to see his effort saved by Galekovic who guessed the right way.
That mattered little as Duke was determined to get his second and in the 72nd minute the Mariners finally got the lead they so richly deserved as another solid goal from Duke made it 2-1.
With two minutes to play the Mariners added a third as Pedj Bojic and Nick Fitzgerald linked up well to set up Michael McGlinchey and seal the match.
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