The Mariners off-season had already got off to a poor start when last season’s A-League wooden spoon winners were dumped from the FFA Cup by Victorian NPL side Green Gully. The club now appears to be in further turmoil after the board could not bear witness to another disastrous season with Walmsley at the helm.

Speaking after Central Coast finished training without their fallen manager in attendance, Ferreira says Walmsley’s short time coaching an A-League club coupled with the average age of the squad were reasons behind today’s sacking.

“He wasn’t a bad coach he tried to do his best,” he said. “Obviously he needs a bit more experience but that’s something that comes with time but overall he was a good guy on and off the pitch.

“It’s always a hard situation when your coach leaves but this is football it happens all the time. So even sometimes when you have a great coach things don’t go well. Obviously last year was a tough season, because we had a very, very young team - not everything is the coach’s fault as he’s not the one that plays.

With the team camped on the bottom of the ladder Walmsley spent stages of the previous A-League campaign talking up Central Coast’s ability to entertain, it appeared that results were more important this season and Ferreira echoed that sentiment.

“Obviously entertaining is good but at the end of the day we want to win,” he said. “So hopefully this season we win many more games, because as you know last season was a horrible season. It’s now the past, hopefully when the season starts we can start winning, keep more compact and it will be a better season for us.”

During the off-season Walmsley did attempt to change the culture of the club away from their focus on youth development. Ferreira believes that new signings like Sydney FC duo Jacques Faty and Michael Tavares as well as Melbourne Victory speedster Connor Pain will provide a stronger challenge for the new campaign.

 “It is important someone can come in and obviously keep doing the work that we started to do in this pre-season and hopefully make us a strong team in the A-League,” he said.

“For me there have been some good signings for the season ahead. We have some good experienced players which is going to help us a lot and it’s looking better than last season.”