Heffernan’s brother Brett will be married shortly before the match and as best man, Heffernan will embark on a whirlwind jaunt to and from Parramatta to keep up his appearance at Bluetongue Stadium and also the company of family and friends at the wedding ceremony and reception.

The unfortunate timing came about when Saturday’s fixture was re-scheduled from earlier this month due to extreme weather conditions on the Central Coast – throwing a spanner into the Heffernan family’s long-standing wedding plans.

However, Heffernan will ultimately take his place in a Mariners line up that is set to run out in front of not only the Central Coast’s largest home attendance of the current campaign, but quite possibly the largest regular season audience in Mariners history.

Mariners go into Saturday’s A-League blockbuster against Sydney FC with arguably their strongest squad of season three, with all but the club’s long-term injured pair Nik Mrdja and Matthew Osman fit and available for selection.

Defender Nigel Boogaard has overcome groin strain and the concussion that has sidelined the former youth international since late November and each of the fifteen that took three points away from Adelaide last Friday have emerged unscathed for Saturday’s derby.

"The last two weeks have been very hard games and to get three points in Adelaide was great, it was probably our best team performance of the season, we put in a great seventy minutes and dominated most of the game," said Mariners manager, Lawrie McKinna.

"Obviously Sydney got well beaten by Perth at the weekend and Kossie will have them wound up to come at us as if they get three points it puts them in the top four.

"If we get a win we’re six points clear at the top, with three of our last four games at home – it’s a huge game for both clubs.

"There was a huge Sydney support that travelled up for the last game that was postponed and I think this will be by far our biggest crowd of the season so the atmosphere for both teams will be great."

Saturday’s match marks the thirteenth occasion the Mariners have met their southern counterparts in a competitive fixture.

In twelve previous meetings, the Mariners have claimed four victories and suffered six losses, more than they have suffered against any other A-League opponent, with the remaining two matches ending in draws.

In total, the Mariners have scored 14 goals and conceded 17, which is more goals than they have conceded against any other A-League opponent.

Leading the charge for the Mariners in fixtures against Sydney FC is midfield talisman John Hutchinson.

Hutchinson has scored three times against the sky blues, which complements the three goals he has scored against the Mariners’ other locals rivals, the Newcastle Jets.

The Sydney FC player to have contributed the most goals to FC’s tally against the Mariners is current Central Coast striker Sasho Petrovski, who scored four times against the yellow and navy before linking with the Mariners for season three.

The Mariners will return to their Bluetongue Stadium home for the first time in six weeks on Saturday night.

The Mariners have staged less Hyundai A-League home matches than any of their Hyundai A-League rivals thus far in season three – six, yet are still able to boast a three point break at the top of the competition with five matches left to play.

With one interstate sojourn remaining this season, the Mariners’ away record is an impressive one, with the yellow and navy having recorded five wins, two draws and three losses on their travels – a greater points return away from home than any other Hyundai A-League club this campaign.

At home, the Mariners have won four of their six matches, drawn one and lost one this season, which places them just one win away from a record haul of Bluetongue Stadium triumphs in one Hyundai A-League season.

Over three seasons, the Mariners’ Hyundai A-League record at Bluetongue Stadium reads twelve wins, eight draws and eight losses from 28 starts, with the Central Coast scoring 42 goals.

"We love playing at Bluetongue Stadium, we’ve got a great record there, we said at the beginning of the season that we wanted to make Bluetongue a fortress and make it hard for teams to come here and get points," said McKinna.

"That’s the way that we’ll be approaching the next four games at home, we’ll be looking to get as many points as we can and putting as much daylight as we can between us and second place."