The Jets lost Wehrman early in the contest due to a suspected Achilles injury, before the Mariners went ahead through Matt Simon on 14 minutes. John Hutchinson sealed the win with a second on 87 minutes.

After the game Culina told Fox Sports that Wehrman's loss was a major blow to his side who were already under-manned.

"Not only have you lost your best player, but your leader and your captain," Culina said. "Someone's who is very inspirational, but that's all we've got and that's all we can do."

Culina added: "We didn't deserve anything. Credit to Central Coast, they played better. We've got our own problems with injuries and it's just impossible to put a team on the park."

The Newcastle coach revealed the club wouldn't be dipping into the transfer market to ease their worries and would rather focus on youth.

"We made a decision a couple of weeks ago that we'd give the youngsters a go and we'll stick to it," he said.

"It's difficult when you're fighting to get into the finals and everyone else is adding players left, right and centre and you've hardly got enough to put on the park."

Culina added: "It's going to require all of us to dig deeper and make sure we give everything. I think most of the players are, but we don't have the depth."

Newcastle's next match is away to Gold Coast United on Saturday.