It’s very fitting that Armistice Day is during the A League season. The history of our game was immensely effected by the First World War. Thousands of the Australian casualties in the war were both football players and supporters.

Post war, the game in this country was a shadow of itself and it took many decades to recover. Ian Syson's book, The Game that Never Happened, is a timely reminder of this forgotten history.

Melbourne Victory 4 - 1 Central Coast Mariners

Back at AAMI Park Victory stormed through the first half despite spurning some early chances. Keisuke Honda, however, made no mistake when he was gifted an opportunity by Mariners' defence.

Victory’s midfield looked a lot more dynamic this week. Central Coast found it very hard to deal with their movement into the channels and the numbers Muscat’s men had in the midfield. These factors proved too tough for the Mariners to handle in the first 45.

Meanwhile, the Mariners have some very big questions to answer this week. They have possibly their best playing list in years. What has gone wrong? Did the Usain Bolt distraction prevent them from gelling as a team? It’s still early in the season but the last two games have been poor.

Melbourne Victory

Lawrence Thomas – 6
Didn’t have anything to do until Shabow accidently scored. He then came up with one or two important contributions.
 
Storm Roux – 6

Victory found a lot of joy down the righthand side in the first half. A lot of that was from the hard work of Storm Roux.

Thomas Deng – 5.5

Looked a little shaky in his first start of the season. He settled into the game though and defended well.

Georg Niedermeier – 5

So far Victory’s new foreign centre half has been less than convincing. It’s been a very profitable recruitment strategy for Muscat, find an experienced European pro to take charge of the defence. It’s only round four but so far he hasn’t looked as assured on the ball as the foreigners who played there before him. Looks dangerous going forward off set pieces though. Should have scored.

Corey Brown – 6.5

Muscat was definitely looking for a certain type of fullback when he recruited Storm Roux and Brown. Both men have engines that might not be entirely street legal. Let’s just keep that on the down low. His hard work was rewarded when the ball fell to him in the box.

Carl Valieri – 6 

He provided the defensive steel for the very attack-minded Victory midfield.

Leigh Broxham – 6 

Was fed but he didn’t score. Broxham butchered a fabulous chance in the twentieth minute. He looked good in his first start of the season though. Victory have missed his quiet achieving.

Terry Antonis – 7

Provided a few beautiful balls that didn’t turn into goals but he got his assist when he slipped James Troisi in behind. He’s been one of the standout performers of the season so far.

Keisuke Honda – 7.5

Finished off his gift beautifully. Since a great, but losing, performance in round one he’s been guilty of trying to do a bit too much off his own boot. Tonight he relaxed a bit and let his team mates play too. He looked all the better for it.

James Troisi – 8

Started this game really well. His form most of last season wasn’t his best but he’s really picked it up this season. Maybe it’s a reverse Samson thing, baldness has super powers.

Kosta Barbarouses – 7

Found some good spaces as the number nine but didn’t convert his golden opportunity in the twenty second minute. He was loving the high and slow line Central Coast played with.

SUBS
 
Josh Hope – 6.5

Found some good combinations when he came on and the last of these saw him slipped in for a tidy finish.

Ola Toivonen – 6

Good to see the Swede finally don the navy blue in the A League. He looked very good on the ball with his first involvement and then he set up his fellow substitute for a nice goal.  

Ramut Akbari – N/A

Didn’t get much time to show his stuff.

Central Coast Mariners

Ben Kennedy – 5.5

Last week it were his personal errors that cost his team. This week he held up his end while his team mates let him down.

Kye Rowles – 4.5

Didn’t get forward enough and he really struggled to deal with the forward runs of the Victory midfielders.

Kalifa Cissé – 5

The two Mariner centre halves are both a bit too similar. Tonight they each looked slow and awkward.  

Antony Golec – 4

Just really off the pace tonight.  

Jack Clisby – 5
 

Had a better second half and got forward more but in the first half he rarely pushed forward and his team suffered for that.

Jacob Melling – 4

Had a first half to forget. He made some very obvious and inexplicable individual errors. He also covered a lot of ground and got a lot of the ball. His team just cannot afford those sort of mistakes.

Aiden O’Neill – 4
 

If he wants to return to the UK and push his way into a senior team over there he’ll need to start performing better for the Mariners. He needs to take charge of this midfield and cover more ground. So far he hasn’t looked any better than young midfielders who’ve had their footballing education here rather than in the English football leagues.

Michael McGlinchey – 4

A very anonymous performance from one of our ANZAC brothers. He hasn’t started the season well.

Connor Pain – 7.5

Against his former employer he was Central Coast’s best attacking weapon. He often just didn’t have enough support. He and Tommy Oar made some great cross field runs during the first half. If his team mates had have played with his passion and drive this game might have had a different result.

Tommy Oar – 5.5
 

His hard work went unrewarded for the most part. He made excellent runs with and without the ball but there just weren’t enough of them. Oar went off injured early in the second half.

Ross McCormack –4.5

Playing as a number 9 he looks a lot more comfortable. However, this season he hasn’t looked like the striker who lit up the league for City.

SUBS
 
Andrew Hoole – 5.5

Looked good on the ball but also looked a little rusty at times.

Mario Shabow – 5

Accidently scored with his first touch. He was confident after that.

Jordan Murray – 4

Had a decent amount of game time taking over from Connor Pain but didn’t have an impact.