The home side had much the better of proceedings after the break but couldn't convert their chances.

They were then left stunned when Matty Simon headed the Central Coast Mariners in front with less than five minutes remaining.

Brad Porter's foul in on Tarek Elrich allowed Griffiths to level and van Egmond was left with a bitter-sweet taste.

He said: "There were a lot of pleasing aspects that we got out of the game. We probably felt like we lost two points.

"We talked about the fact that they had a few missing and a lot of the boys in the Central Coast team had a point to prove.

"When you play teams like that it is always difficult if you don't take your chances early and score - so the longer the game went the more we invited them into it. And we copped a goal with five minutes to go. But to the team's credit we found a way to come away with something from the game."

"Overall I'm pleased with some of the play in spits and spats and as far as the fluidity is concerned and it is going to take a bit of time to get that back – after three or four rounds that is going to come.

"I think Edmundo definitely wanted to please and wanted to score but it is just a matter of getting the runs right and getting the right timing – we will work on that.

"I thought Song was effective in the position we played him. There was a lot of pleasing aspects that we got out of the game but again, as it has been stated, we felt as if we lost two points out of the game.

"I think that the fact that we have come from adversity to come from 1-0 down to get something out of the game is a real positive. The way that we played in certain times shows what we are capable of – for us it is about getting our groove back."

Mariners boss Lawrie McKinna said: "Overall, we would have been happy to come here with the team that we had on the park and to come away with a point and it’s turned out that way, but it’s hard to take after giving away a silly penalty at the end.

"The first half we felt comfortable, there weren’t a lot of goal scoring opportunities but we had the better of the play and in the second half they had us under the pump for about 25 minutes.

"We gave the ball away too easy, but we weathered that and from when Matty scored, we should have been able to close out the game."

"We had a lot of boys missing tonight and credit to the boys that were out there, they worked hard.

"Hopefully next week the likes of Boogaard, Heffernan and Macallister can rejoin the squad and we can start to get stronger over the coming weeks."