Melbourne City ran riot on the Central Coast on Thursday night, breaking their Gosford duck in brilliant style with a 5-1 win over the hapless Mariners.
John van 't Schip's side has now jumped to fourth place on the A-League table and this win means that City have now scored 10 goals in their past two games, following a 5-1 thrashing of Perth Glory last Friday night. They are the first A-League team to score five goals in two consecutive matches.
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City hit Mariners for five in A-League
Harry Novillo brace helps Melbourne City to 5-1 win over Central Coast Mariners.
City was clinical, calm and ruthless as Harry Novillo, with two goals, one in each half, Bruno Fornaroli, with his seventh for the season, Stefan Mauk with a quarter of an hour to play and Aaron Mooy in stoppage time, put the game to bed.
The A-League's weekend of boycotts got off to a low-key start when most of Central Coast Mariners active fan group, along with their brass band accompaniment, stayed away, leaving only a sign declaring that they had "gone to the pub".
By the end of the evening those loyal souls who stayed for the duration would surely have wished they had joined them.
For once Mooy wasn't City's chief creative force.
The Socceroo midfielder, who is now said to be attracting interest from cashed up Middle-Eastern clubs, was man marked, at least initially, by the Mariners' youngster Harry Ascroft.
It wasn't until late in the game, when he set up Mauk for City's fourth, and struck himself, that he had a significant influence.
This was a match that perfectly illustrated how life always seems to go when you are down among the dead men at the bottom of the table.
Early on the Mariners mounted numerous attacks, with the pace of Mitch Austin causing the City defence all sorts of problems by simply putting his head down and running at them.
But too often a final ball or the final touch from Mariners' striker Roy O'Donovan let the hosts down.
So it was somehow inevitable that when City got their first really good chance midway through the first half they would take it.
After the Mariners failed to make the most of an attack, City broke with intent; Fornaroli pinched the ball in the centre of the field, picked out Novillo with a well weighted pass and the Frenchman took a touch before slamming past Paul Izzo in the Mariners' goal.
Tony Walmsley's team has won plenty of plaudits for a buccaneering approach and up and at 'em attacking style, but plaudits are no substitute for points.
City's problem has been its inconsistency: good one day, terrible the next, and somewhere in between on any other day. But that harrowing 3-0 loss to Western Sydney at AAMI Park last month seems to have concentrated minds. City showed plenty of guts to grab a point in Brisbane before slamming Perth 5-1 last week.
The game was effectively sealed by City just before the interval through a wonderfully worked team goal, their second of the game. Jack Clisby found Novillo on the left, whose pass was directed at Fornaroli; the Uruguayan dummied, allowing Erik Paartalu to control the ball and play him through before Fornaroli calmly finished past Izzo.
Novillo made it three just before the hour mark with a well struck shot from the edge of the penalty area, and Mauk iced the cake when set up by Mooy.
Luck was definitely out for the Mariners, as the team finished up with only 10 players.
Walmsley had used all his substitutes up when defender Storm Roux suffered concussion and had to go off, with no replacement available.
Still, the hosts got some reward for their endeavour late in the game when the indefatigable Austin once again charged at the City goal only to be brought down by Ivan Franjic.
Referee Strebre Delovski pointed to the spot, and Austin got the goal his whole-hearted performance deserved, only for Mooy to stretch the lead again in the dying moments.
City coach van `t Schip pointed out his team were shaky in the first 25 minutes, but he was otherwise content.
"Of course, two 5-1 (scorelines) is massive for the confidence," he said. "But we also know we have a lot of things we still have to work on."
Mariners coach Tony Walmsley said he wished his players had maintained their first-half intent.
"I can't sit here and defend a 5-1 defeat at home," he said. "You have to execute at both ends of the park.
"We missed chances, we coughed the ball up at the other end and you're 2-0 down and asking 'how did that happen?'."
With aap