Perez was at his scheming best throughout and needed to be after Sydney dominated much of the first stanza against a tired looking Mariners outfit.

Teenager Dimitri Petratos scored two first-half goals to have the visitors on course for an upset victory at Bluetongue Stadium.

The young striker beat the off-side trap to open the scoring in the 17th minute before capitalising on a terrible blunder from veteran defender Patrick Zwaanswijk 10 minutes later to put Sydney two goals clear.

Mariners coach Graham Arnold changed his formation at half-time, playing three up front and only three defenders with striker Daniel McBreen coming on for defender Trent Sainsbury.

The move paid off four minutes into the second half when Perez cut inside Stephan Keller and fired home with his left foot. It was his fourth goal of the season and first from open play.

In the 57th minute Perez was the provider when his well-placed freekick was headed home by Matt Simon to make the score 2-2. It was Simon's 11th goal of the season.

The Mariners dominated the final 25 minutes but failed to score a winner. McBreen had a low shot saved by Sydney goalkeeper Liam Reddy in the 79th minute and replacement Mustafa Amini fired over from close range with only two minutes to play.

McBreen thought he won the match with another chance in injury time but his header went just wide.

The result moves Central Coast back into second on 47 points, one point ahead of Adelaide who have played the same number of games, while Sydney are ninth on 26 points after 26 matches.

Central Coast Mariners 2 (Perez 49', Simon 58')
Sydney FC 2 (Petratos 17', 28')
Crowd; 10546 @ Bluetongue Stadium