Headache ... Graham Arnold has seen his Mariners miss their last five penalty attempts. Source: Paul Miller / AAP
Four penalty misses on the trot.
Central Coast's penalty troubles: a breakdown of their penalty conversion rates in A-League history, courtesy of Fox Sports Stats.
Name/Total penalties/penalties converted:
- Matt Ryan - 1/0
- Daniel McBreen - 8/3
- Pedj Bojic - 1/0
- Patrick Zwaanswijk - 2/1
- John Hutchinson - 1/0
- Troy Hearfield - 1/0
- Mile Sterjovski - 7/6
- Adam Kwasnik - 5/4
No wonder Arnie is worried about the cut-throat cup-tie style of the A-League finals!
Rival A-League fans love to jibe the Mariners over their record under pressure. The two-time premiers and three-time grand finalists are yet to get over the line with a championship and infamously lost the 2010-2011 grand final against Brisbane Roar on penalties, before bowing out to Perth Glory at the spot in the preliminary final last season.
A coincidence or worrying trend? Fox Sports football commentator Brenton Speed takes a look at the Mariners' penalty woes in the video at the top of the page!
It was Mat Ryan's turn to step up to the plate on the weekend, but his 52nd minute miss in the 1-0 loss to Western Sydney Wanderers follows Daniel McBreen and Nick Montgomery succumbing at the spot in previous weeks.
Bozza, in the video down the right, explains why he awarded Ante Covic the Save of the Week for denying Ryan on Saturday night.
"We practise them at training and Matty is an incredible shooter . . . so it's not like we were just plucking people out of nowhere," Arnold said.
"Matty was confident to step up and confident to take it and I give him credit for doing that.
"These things happen. Everyone misses penalties but it's frustrating because we're threw three points away in the Champions League on Wednesday night and we threw three points away tonight as well."
Desperate time, desperate measures? Arnold agrees he might have to re-assess his penalty-taking policies.
"If you've got goalscorers out there, they should be the ones who want to take it," Arnold said.
"It's probably gotten to the stage where you've got to designate someone specifically now and he has to take that responsibility.
"Even if he misses he backs up and does the next one."
To be fair, poking fun at this run of misses overshadows the Mariners' role in one of the A-League's great nights, with a packed house watching a ferocious battle in driving rain.
But a look over the other side of the fence, and the new boys are top of the table, their fans still jubilant on the trip back from Bluetongue.
Now it’s Arnie trying to play the mind games to take the pressure off his side in the race for top spot – but Tony Popovic isn’t going to bite.
"There's a lot of twists and turns to go. There's four tough games for everyone," Arnold said.
"If you don't score when you're dominating you're vulnerable. It's a hard lesson to learn, but it's a lesson we've got to learn and we've got to move forward - simple."
Popovic’s reply?
"Every week you ask me the same thing (about) will they (the players) get complacent?" Popovic said.
"Eight wins in a row shows they're not getting complacent and they certainly won't be next week.
"That doesn't guarantee a result against Wellington but I can guarantee you they'll be well prepared for that game."
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