Paul Okon's men bounced back from last week's 5-1 shellacking in the F3 Derby with an impressive display despite being reduced to 10 men late in the match.

Andrew Hoole who set up De Silva for the goal of the game was sent packing for a second yellow on 85 minutes. Even so it was the visitors who looked more likely to break the deadlock.

Man of the match, De Silva, ran the show for long periods despite coming under some heavy attention from the Wanderers defence.

Post-match he told Fox Sports: "Tonight we showed really what a footballing team we are and how dangerous we can be. We obviously created a lot of chances for ourselves.

"Unfortunately we weren't clinical enough on those chances but we'll continue to work on that and then hopefully next week we'll be more clinical."

In a see-sawing match the Mariners twice took the lead but on each occasion were pegged back by the home side.

Spanish striker, Asdrúbal ,kicked off the goal fest on 21 minutes for the Mariners before Wout Brama brought down Roly Bonevacia in the box and Oriol Riera converted from the spot on 39 minutes.

Bonevacia again restored parity on 69 minutes after the Mariners retook the lead just after the hour. And it was the sheer brilliance of the visitors' second goal that brought fans to the edge of their seats.

Rocked by a soft penalty for the second week in a row, the Mariners found the perfect reply when Hoole passed to De Silva who flicked deftly over a diving Vedran Janjetovic into the bottom right hand corner - the last touch seemingly cooming off a Wanderers player.

For De Silva, who chose to reunite with Okon rather than return to Perth Glory after a disappointing overseas stint, it was the promise of more to come.

"(Okon) is the biggest reason I chose to be at the Mariners," De Silva said.

"He really believes in me and I have a lot of respect for the system he's playing. I believe in it a lot and I know the players believe in it and it showed tonight."