The Central Coast Mariners youngster grew up as an Aston Villa fan and his bedroom wall featured pictures of his heroes on the other side of the world - including one Mark Bosnich.

Porter was left having to pinch himself this week when Bosnich donned a Mariners kit and began a two-week trial to try and earn himself a contract with the A-League club.

Before setting off to New Zealand to face Wellington Phoenix in the Pre-Season Cup, the squad enjoyed a game between themselves at Bluetongue Stadium.

Porter was on one side, Bosnich the other. Porter blasted two goals past his hero during the match and hopes the keeper will be hanging around for just a little longer.

He told au.fourfourtwo.com: "During the mid 1990s he was at Villa and I was a big supporter. At that time he was arguably the best keeper in the world.

"To have him here and training and being able to knock a few goals past him is a great feeling.

"You can see he has that aura about him and he’s already yelling at the boys. It’s going to be invaluable.

"He gets an opportunity to play for contract and get himself fit and for us we can get all the information we can out of him."

Bosnich was remaining in Sydney for further sessions with goalkeeping coach John Crawley while the rest of the squad headed for New Zealand.

At Westpac Stadium and against the Wellington Phoenix on Sunday, the CMariners will potentially unveil their greatest number of debutants since their inaugural match over three years ago, with five new faces in line for their first starts in yellow and navy.

Off-season recruits Adrian Caceres, David D’Apuzzo, Ahmad Elrich and Dylan Macallister are set to receive their first official caps as Mariners players, while Qantas Young Socceroo custodian Andrew Redmayne is challenging Danny Vukovic for a starting berth in goal.

Coach Lawrie McKinna said: "We’re looking forward to it, it seems like a long pre-season but it actually comes around very quickly, the boys are looking forward to it and we’re gradually starting to get a few numbers back on the park and having a stronger squad to pick from.

"Last year we always had hard games against Wellington, especially going over there, they have a great supporter base, there is a great atmosphere and we’ll be expecting the same on Sunday.

"They’ve always played quite well against us in the past, so we’ll be expecting a hard and competitive game."