The fleet-footed youngster slid home his fifth goal of the campaign from close range with some 21 minutes left and only some desperate defending from the visitors prevented a resurgent Glory side from claiming all three points in front of a crowd of 6727.

The Glory faithful reserved a warm welcome for Stan Lazaridis and Jason Petkovic as the experienced pair made their first starts of the campaign, while Jamie Harnwell’s return was the third change made to the side that lost to Queensland last week.

Harnwell wasted no time in reintroducing himself to the fray as he almost converted an early half-chance with less than a minute on the clock.

Billy Celeski was the architect, getting away down the right and whipping in a searching cross that the Central Coast defence failed to deal with.

Goalkeeper Danny Vukovic was unable to gather at the first attempt, but managed to recover in time to block a goalbound header from Harnwell who had pounced on the loose ball.

Petkovic also found himself called into action in the opening exchanges, firstly as he raced out smartly to foil the onrushing John Aloisi, before shepherding a Paul O’Grady header wide of the post after the central defender had got on the end of a John Hutchinson free-kick.

The game was rapidly settling into something of a midfield arm-wrestle, with neither side able to quite get on top and as a result, clear-cut goalscoring opportunities were fairly thin on the ground.

Vukovic did make a comfortable save from a well-struck Nikolai Topor-Stanley free-kick on 12 minutes, while the dangerous Aloisi came within centimetres of converting a Sasho Petrovski cross at the other end some seven minutes later, but most of the play was restricted to the congested middle third of the field.

It was perhaps inevitable that the opening goal of the night would be the product of direct football and that certainly proved to be the case when Hutchinson put the Mariners in front seven minutes short of the break.

Vukovic’s long punt from just outside his own box found its way through to the feet of Hutchinson and the midfielder showed no hesitation in blasting the ball wide of Petkovic to claim his third goal of the season.

James Robinson replaced Nick Rizzo at the break and the Scouser made an immediate impact with his impressive work-rate tilting the midfield balance in Glory’s favour.

Lazaridis was also looking brighter as the game went on, with Harnwell clearly relishing the quality service provided by the former Socceroo.

Having gained the upper hand in midfield, Glory duly began to carve out some chances in front of goal, with Downey firing over on 61 minutes after good approach play from Robinson and Harnwell coming agonisingly close to converting a fine Lazaridis cross.

Dave Mitchell then decided that the moment had arrived to test the tired Mariners’ defence by introducing Rukavytsya and the youngster showed his undoubted potential with almost his first touch.

Picking the ball up just inside his own half, he beat two defenders for pace before cutting inside from the left, but although his searing angled drive beat Vukovic, it clipped the crossbar and rebounded away to safety.

Rukavytsya was not to be denied for long however and on 69 minutes he claimed his fifth goal of the season.

Bertos was the provider, as he capped a mazy run down the right flank with an inch-perfect low cross and Rukavytsya was perfectly placed to rifle the ball past Vukovic from close range.

The home fans erupted and from then on in it was essentially one-way traffic as the visitors found themselves pounded by wave after wave of purple attacks.

Harnwell went close with no fewer than three headed efforts, with Lazaridis supplying the cross on each occasion and although Jamie Coyne’s timely intervention prevented Aloisi from restoring the visitors’ lead on 85 minutes, within seconds Bertos almost embarrassed the over-worked Vukovic with a low drive at the other end.

The Shed sensed a winner and roared their encouragement and as the game moved into stoppage time, it almost arrived.

Robinson played Rukavytsya in and the youngster turned sharply to get a left-foot shot away, but a cluster of Central Coast defenders were on hand to snuff out the danger.

There was somehow still time for one final Glory chance, as Harnwell’s bravery and persistence earned the home side a free-kick some 22 meters out in a central position.

Simon Colosimo’s well-struck effort looked goalbound as it beat the wall, but it flew narrowly over Vukovic’s crossbar leaving the Mariners grateful to have survived and secured a point that may prove crucial come the end of the season.