The Mariners looked destined for the next round, but with six minutes remaining they managed to butcher the lead.

Pain was one of the five players making their competitive debut last night for the Mariners, the 22-year-old who came from Melbourne Victory at the end of the 2015-16 came on after an hour, but failed to make an impact.

The winger refused to believe a loss would be beneficial as a wake up call and stressed the club placed big importance on the competition.

“I wouldn’t say this is good at all, we wanted to show everyone this is a new Central Coast and this is a team that could go forward and do good things,” Pain told FourFourTwo.

“I’m sure we still can, however it’s just not a good start and that’s okay I guess we’ll regroup, but we wanted to go deeper into this competition and it hurts.”

A number of decisions went against the Mariners during the game, Roy O’Donovan looked to have made it 2-0, but was ruled out for offside.

On the other end, Daniel Jones’ equaliser had Mariner’s officials questioning if the skipper was onside.

Pain however wasn’t making any excuses and believed it should have been a comfortable win after half-time.

He also said he spoke to goalkeeping coach Matthew Nash during the break and they saw the fall “creeping in”.

“To be honest it was a game we were in total control of in the first half, we came out a different side in the second term,” he said.

“When you don’t take your chances in the first half it just comes back to bite you, we could see it happening.

"We can’t come out in the second half and be a completely different team, so it just wasn’t good enough.

“I don’t know if complacent the word, it was one of those things it’s the cup, you can’t take your foot off the pedal for a second.

“It’s all good keeping the ball, but it’s no good if you’re not taking your chances and not creating things.

"The first half, we actually made chances, we looked likely to score and we should have got a couple more.”

Despite the woes Pain had in his first match he said he’d settled in at Gosford positively and also wanted to make it clear there were no sour feelings towards his former club.

Pain also questioned where the conjecture surrounding his departure was coming from.

“The lads have made me feel good, it’s been a good change moving up there, I wasn’t playing enough at Victory and had to move on, credit to the lads for helping me out and really making me feel at home,” he said.

“We shook hands and said our goodbyes, I don’t know what a lot of people thought. It was more myself wanting to move on and seeing how I could facilitate my transfer.

“It wasn’t like I was pushed or anything, I think it was just the option for best parties at the time because I wasn’t happy.

“Melbourne’s always been my home, but I’m living with a couple of lads and they’ve made me feel comfortable and really happy to be with them. It’s all good so far, we’ll go back up there, work harder and make amends.”