The Central Coast Mariners captain finally saw the net bulge in his team’s Pre-Season Cup triumph over Wellington Phoenix at the weekend, after some 60 matches of trying.

Now he’s got one, Wilkinson has a taste for more and hopes the wait between goals won’t be quite as long.

But as long as someone in a Mariners shirt is sticking the ball in the back of the net, that’s all that really concerns him.

“Yeah, it was great to get off the mark in the Wellington game, especially as it gave us an early boost,” Wilkinson told au.fourfourtwo.com. “It’s been a while since my last goal, that’s for sure.”

When pressed for more details about that last goal, the skipper starts to splutter a touch. “Ah, I reckon it must be a good three or four years ago. Who was it for? Do you know, I’m not quite sure.”

Every goal is worth celebrating but the Mariners’ skipper admits there is some work to do in terms of acknowledging the occasion, joking, “No, there’s no goal celebrations planned, it’s not really something I’ve worked on.”

Plenty of other “work” has been going on at the club though and Wilkinson believes Lawrie McKinna’s men are reaping the rewards of an early start to their A-League preparations. The Mariners had the briefest of breaks following the conclusion of the last campaign and Wilkinson feels the club’s coaching staff have been spot on in their planning.

“We had a couple of weeks off before reporting back. We then worked for about a month, had another couple of weeks rest and then came back in.

“I think that’s really helped the boys. Last time, there was a bigger gap and people were picking up injuries. That’s not happened this time and we’re enjoying it.”

Results in pre-season have been more than encouraging and Wilkinson is in optimistic mood. “Obviously we’ve some new boys on board and they’re settling in. We’ve won our trial games and got the win over Wellington in the Pre-Season Cup. Things are looking pretty good.

“We go to Orange for our next match and that should be another challenge. I imagine it’ll be freezing!”

While Wilkinson is part of a Central Coast outfit eyeing a top four finish this season, he has added responsibility with coach McKinna having handed him the captain’s armband for the new season.

“I had a couple of matches last year as the captain and enjoyed it. Obviously Lawrie has shown a lot of faith in me and I’m looking forward to it.”