Perezing Our Advantage

After our triumphant away win in Adelaide I am sure of one thing: while we may not be able to take the Premiers Plate away from Brisbane, you can bet your life we will make them sweat every step of the way.

This must now be our mission, our goal, our guiding light. Every match to come this must be our focus and all our efforts must be to glorify the name of the Mariners : the only team who have what it takes to challenge the so-called unstoppable Roar.

Who else will take our top two place, who else is capable ?

Clearly, Adelaide are chokers while GCU are too busy whinging about teams nipping at their heels to keep their eyes on the prize.

None of that pitiful stuff need concern us. We are the Mariners and we fear no-one! Our consistency and determination will be rewarded with the ultimate prize: to play against Roar home and away and then to meet them in the Grand Final.

Given that chance, who's to say we cannot finally make that toilet seat our own? We will pit our team, our coach, our support staff and our fans against Brisbane's any day and not be found wanting.

Yes, I know that's not the way it was supposed to be - we're supposed to be that nice little smalltown team from up the F3 who just come along to make up the numbers. Glory are supposed to be reserved for the big city boys, not us. Every season they tell us we're not going anywhere, repeating their lowly predictions like a mantra in a doomed effort to make it come true.

Hey, pundits and assorted commentators : it didn't work - AGAIN !

What's that ? Silence. Deafening silence. Perhaps a bit of damning with faint praise. "The Mariners are in great form" says Fossie through gritted teeth before quickly moving on to discuss Victory at length.

A tiny column in the paper about Perez (he needs pages, surely !) next to a double spread about Sydney blah blah "Finals Hopes Still Alive" - yawn, *sigh*.

Hey, wake up ! This is a guy who has Lionel Messi on speed-dial and he's playing in the A-League, showing silky skills and pace and getting better by the week : get excited people !! He's coming with us to the finals and into next season, possibly ACL. Sorry he's not wearing the strip of your choice but hey, what can I say ? Hire Arnie to do your scouting next season.

And if you thought Matt McKay shone for the Socceroos, what about Josh Rose ? A left back who can score ? Hey Holger, take another look at the A-League, now the Pim-curse has been broken.

Yes, it was a gutsy performance by the Socceroos against Japan but I couldn't help but feel frustrated by our inability to take advantage of our early dominance. As chance after chance missed its mark I became more certain we would be made to pay.

Like the Socceroos, the Mariners conceded a late goal against Adelaide due to defensive error but luckily we had made the most of our advantage in the first half and could weather their late come-back.

The fate of the Socceroos is a well-known but nonetheless heartbreaking football script which the Mariners need to avoid in the weeks ahead. We need to kill off games early and then stay focused until the final whistle just as we did in Adelaide if we are to live the "Come and Get Us Brisbane If You Think You're Hard Enough" dream.

To do my bit for the Mariners, I've even thought of rewriting the rather embarrassing words of Fox Sports football fan pledge (own-up Harps, we know you're responsible !).

You know the one I mean - surely we all cringed together at various weird Asian Cup hours of the morning to hear :

"From this day forward...(weddings, anyone?)

Under Holger (spoken by a little girl...umm)

I pledge my allegiance to the Socceroos.

Whether in the comfort of my manor (hello Arthur Daley!)

Or in the company of like-minded brethren (he means 'drunks')

My frenzied cries of patronage (what, like the Hitler Youth League ?)

Will ring out loudly disturbing the neighbours.

(I made this line up but you get the idea)

We even had to endure the suddenly inappropriate vision of Muskie extolling the Socceroos' virtues, one of them being "class". Yeah, like you'd know.

So let's write a ludicrous Mariners Fan Pledge, get Short Stack to do some music and George Negus to put it on primetime TV. Something-like :

"From this day forward,