RECAP THE DURIC PHENOMENON AND ROWLES' ECSTASY IN OUR SIDELINE GALLERY ABOVE

Central Coast sprung to life early and took the lead after just four minutes through an unlikely hero, none less than Kye Rowles popping up to do the damage after a scrambling Tommy Oar cross.

Rowles' quick reactions and clinical effort helped springboard the Mariners into action and Milan Duric popped up in the final moments of the first half to send the Gosford fans into ecstasy, as he so often has this season.

Duric's low drive from distance from another highlight reel from the Serbian, who has shown himself to be a top-class striker of the ball this season.

Adelaide did strike back at the break of the second period through a beautiful Ben Halloran effort and the Reds heaped pressure increasingly as the match wore on.

But with Al Hassan Toure in the Mariners' pocket for much of the match and after the withdrawal of James Troisi, who had an unconvincing display, you couldn't help but ponder where the spark was going to come from.

"It's obviously a really important game for us, to stay in touching distance of the top six we really had to win today," Oar said.

"I think the first half saw us play really well. It was obviously disappointing to concede so early in the second half but I think it's a nice Christmas present for our fans as well.

"They had a number of half-chances, they almost scored in the first half. But we'll take it, I think it's a bit of luck that's finally gone our way and we can move forward to New Years with our heads held high.

"There's more resilience to this Mariners team. In previous seasons, unless we played our best game of the season, we wouldn't walk away with three points."