David Elliott blogs on the Central Coast Mariners for BPL.

Mariners fans might have been keen to voice their opinions about the Patricio Perez ruling during the week, unfurling a huge ‘No Justice For Perez' banner at Bluetongue Stadium but the Mariners themselves would have been keen to put the controversial week behind them. And what better way to do that than with the aptly-named FIFA Fair Play Round against Melbourne Victory.

And they started where they left off against Sydney, moving the ball quickly, defending strongly and bustling into tackles giving Melbourne's classy midfielders no time to settle into the game. However, the biggest problem for the Mariners remains the fact that they just don't seem to value ball possession. It can't be that hard to pass the ball to a teammate, can it?

Midfield trio McGlinchey, Griffiths and Bozanic all started well in an overall poor opening 20 minutes by the Mariners, only let down at the point of the diamond by John Hutchinson who's usefulness was akin to an ashtray on a motorbike. But to be fair, we were again kept in the game because of the wall like defence of Zwaanswijk and Wilkinson, Rose and Bojic continually frustrated Melbourne's pacey three-pronged attack.

Perhaps it was against the run of play when Rostyn Griffiths headed home an inch-perfect McGlinchey cross after Daniel McBreen won a free kick 15 metres inside Melbourne's half - but that's the beauty of our game and I'm sure most A-League fans would have enjoyed seeing that smirk wiped off Kevin Muscat's face.

At times it did seem as though Melbourne had an extra man - running the Mariners around at will with their passing through the midfield or perhaps it was Kevin Muscat's role as the world's first ‘on-field' commentator. Does that bloke ever shut up? But all the build-up amounted to nothing, as the stingy Mariners defence set their line and refused to budge as the rain set in for the second half.

And when Matt Simon's cross was met by a diving header from McBreen, Melbourne's task got harder and summed up veteran ‘keeper Michael Petkovic's nervous night in goal for last year's runners-up.

A win built from some great defending as Graham Arnold's men start to put together some cohesion at the back and after taking the only two clear cut chances you'd have to say the front third is also coming together. So all that's missing is the consistency in the middle third but for any Mariners fan they'd take 2 out of 3 any day of the week!