The Mariners staged an amazing fight back with a three goal smash and grab blitz in just 18 minutes to level the score and share the points with the Reds.

But McKinna says his side could have taken all the points.

"At half-time when it was 2-0, we were of the belief that we could come back," he said.

'We weren’t looking at three goals, we weren’t looking at two, we were looking at one to put them on the back foot,

"When we lost the goal early in the second half, we made a change, we went to three up front and it worked for us.

"Dylan Macallister came on and did fantastically, Sasho did well, Matt Simon did well and Caceres could have scored a hat-trick – it worked and we felt as though we could have won the game in the last few minutes."

He added: "After their penalty they were on the front foot and credit to them, they pumped us, then we gave away a bad second goal and it took us about ten or fifteen minutes to come back into the game.

"To lose another goal early in the second half – it could have been four or five after that, but credit must go to the team for the way they played."

Adelaide United coach Aurelio Vidmar could not hide his disappointment after the game, saying it was a win that his team somehow managed to throw away.

“I’m extremely disappointed. We certainly threw away two points tonight,” Vidmar said.

“I can’t fault the players on the first 45 minutes, I thought it was some of the best football we’ve played all year. We just got a bit lazy in that last 30 minutes when we went 3-nil up and it just fell apart.”

Vidmar also refused to be drawn into the suggestion that players may have had an eye on Wednesday’s ACL Semi Final against Bunyodkor/Kuruvchi.

“I’ve heard that so many times. If there was any thought on Wednesday night, it would have started at the beginning of the game,” Vidmar said.

“We just couldn’t keep up with the intensity in the second half. A lot of credit to the Central Coast, they certainly know how to fight and that’s certainly what their whole game is all about.

"They never give up, they never lie down and we copped it.”