For the second year running, on the exact same date, the Mariners were knocked out of the FFA Cup Round of 32 by an NPL side. 

In 2016 the Mariners, under the guidance of Tony Walmsley, went down 2-1 to NPL Victoria side Green Gully, while last night Okon's men suffered a 3-2 loss to NPL NSW outfit Blacktown City. 

It is the fifth time an A-League club has been knocked out of the FFA Cup by an NPL side, with Heidelberg United doing it to Perth Glory on Tuesday, and Adelaide United and Western Sydney Wanderers suffering the same fate in previous editions of the competition. 

However, Okon believes his side were unlucky not to progress, admitting they committed too many sloppy errors throughout the match.

“I thought we were excellent tonight,” Okon told the Mariners website. “They had a plan to sit back and take whatever chances came their way from us losing the ball trying to force things. It was made a bit more difficult going a goal down after four minutes that we should never concede.

“The positive thing for us, is that there’s a few gears we can step things up, I thought our movement was excellent, we created a number of chances and certainly should have scored more goals.

“The disappointing thing is that we gave away three cheap goals and we’re now out of the cup.

“If we hadn’t of turned up tonight and played the way we did then maybe there would be some concern but again I don’t think we did too much wrong. We have players to come in, I think we’re going to be a really exciting team.

“Synthetic was always going to be a bit of a challenge for us, it’s not an excuse. Playing against a defensive block when you’re behind you maybe try and force things too much but credit to Blacktown, they go through and we wish them luck."

After knocking out Glory on Tuesday, Heidelberg coach George Katsakis said he believes the gap between the A-League and NPL sides is "narrowing", but Okon doesn't see it that way. 

“The gap between NPL and the A-League is massive, we saw that tonight," Okon said. "The way we controlled the game, the way we moved the ball. They struggled to get near us. Their three goals weren’t scored because they outplayed us, they were scored because they were goals we gave them.

“We hadn’t conceded up until tonight, that’s the really disappointing thing about it – the three goals we gave away because I thought we did enough in the 90 minutes to win the game quite comfortably. The positive thing is that we are nowhere near our fitness levels and we will certainly step things up."