Central Coast drew 1-1 last weekend with Newcastle in the F3 derby, their third draw of 2016/2017. After seven rounds the Mariners only victory so far has come against cellar dwellers Adelaide United.

O'Donovan believes the squad are slowly but surely getting accustomed to Paul Okon's method, after he was given the coaching reins just weeks before the A-League campaign kicked off.

"Training's been different, the lead up to games has been slightly different," he said.

"Going forward, the way they want to play football is the right way to play football. At this moment in time it hasn't clicked 100% just yet, which it shouldn't do either, we're a team in transition.

"Seven games into the season with a new coaching staff. But when it does it's going to really exciting and hopefully it's not far away.

"90% of football is played in your head anyway. The more confident you are as a team, as an individual, the better the results are going to be. We're going to see a really good Mariners team hopefully after Christmas and hopefully even sooner.

"We're starting to gel a little bit more."

The Mariners managed a draw against the Jets despite playing for 25 minutes with only 10 men. O'Donovan believes the club's difficult 2015/2016 season has helped create greater resolve.

"We obviously went through a lot last season, we were down to 10 men quite a lot, so we were a little bit used to it maybe compared to other teams," the striker said.

"Experience of games, previous games and seasons, when you've been in that situation before you use that experience. We're a stronger unit for it. It was unfortunate for Rosey to be sent off. But we held our nerve and just about got over the line.

"We could have nicked it a goal late on, but we were lucky. There was some great saves from Izzo. Its indicative of the lads really. We've got a good bunch of lads who want to play attacking football and it's always been that way here.

"If anything, we've kind of shot ourselves in the foot, even this season. The goals we've conceded are our own fault. You can pinpoint our individual mistakes and if we can cut those out we'll win a lot more football games.

"[It was] a good point away from home, down to 10 men, we take that and move forward and look to the next game."

The Irish centre-forward was impressed with the travelling support the Mariners had at McDonald Jones Stadium.

"It was absolutely terrific," he said.

"That's the kind of stuff that gets you over the line in games. It drives you on. The more yellow jerseys and hats we see the better. The fans have been absolutely superb."

Central Coast host Perth Glory at home on Thursday. O'Donovan is pleased that his side are back playing on their own turf.

"Perth play a nice set of football, they've got good players," the 31-year old said.

"It's going to be a difficult challenge for us. But it's at home, we've only had one home game properly this season out of seven. So it's good to be back at Gosford and not travelling around the world, having someone come to us for a change.

"It's going to be a challenge, they're a good side, they're second in the league for a reason. We need to be on our A game and if we are, we can get a result."