WHEN Brendan Gan scored for Sydney a wave of frustration, happiness and bigheadedness washed over me. All at once.

Frustration because it knocked the Mariners out of the top four.

Happiness because it pretty much extinguished the Jets title defence. What can I say, I’m a Mariners fan.

Bigheadedness because I told you so.

Already, I am eagerly anticipating bragging to all my friends about how brilliant the Sydney youth team is and how he’s part of that brilliance. Sure, it was a great assist by Corica, but in five years, Brendan Gan will be remembered for the goal. Maybe.

Speaking of Sydney, I applaud John Kosmina (at last) for naming three youth players on his bench against the Jets on the weekend. Now all you have to do is name some in your starting line up, Kossie (and maybe get yourself a haircut while you’re at it).

On second thoughts, hold off the youth players until AFTER the game against the Coast next weekend or we might be in for an Adelaide/Wellington style drubbing.

To be perfectly and brutally honest, I am not very excited about the Mariners A-League match against SFC next weekend.

In fact, I really don’t care.

Seriously. Does the thought of watching an out of form John Aloisi lumber up the pitch to reach a hit-too-hard cross and Sasho Petrovski “go for goal” really appeal to you?

Frankly, I’m more interested in the youth match beforehand.

Sydney lost to Newcastle Jets over the weekend, the first time they’ve failed to win a match all NYL season. On the other hand, the Mariners are coming off the back of two wins (against Perth and Queensland). It will be an interesting game and, as always, I can’t wait to see the Sydney team in action.

The Mariners/Roar youth fixture on Saturday was pretty exciting for a Mariners fan. It was the first time I’d seen the team win, having missed their other home win against Melbourne back in round 3.

Dean “The Fairy” Heffernan played the full 90 minutes, which prompts me to ask – “Why the bloody hell didn’t he play in the first team match?” The youth match was high intensity and fast paced and Dean could keep up with that. It was certainly more so than the game afterwards.

Another interesting thing to come out the match was the return of Robbie “Rehab” Kruse, who played for 45 minutes but didn’t actually do that much. Still, good to see him get some game time. Actually, good to see him at all.

The compounded tragedies (i.e. second season syndrome, injuries, alleged nightclub “incidents”, breaking up with girlfriends etc) have meant that he’s not up to playing in the first team. Hopefully he can get back to fitness soon.

The yellows’ win against Roar has boosted them into finals contention. They’ve put six points between them and last placed Melbourne Victory (who’ve actually played one more game than everyone else in the league due to the weird seven team competition thing but just aren’t as good as their senior counterparts).

To all the Mariners and Sydney fans out there who are going to the game on Saturday – turn up a bit earlier and catch some of the youth game. It’s sure to be a great game. Three points for the Coasties? Here’s hoping the answer to that is a big, resounding YES.