We’re celebrating our 10-year anniversary this Friday as our City boys prepare to face the Central Coast Mariners at home.
The Mariners currently find themselves in 6th after securing their first win of the season away to Perth Glory in arguably the upset of the season thus far.
City, on the other hand, are in excellent form with three wins and a draw narrowly securing us first place coming into Round 5.
We’re desperate for another win to keep the momentum going, but it mightn’t be all that easy. Here’s are some of the talking points coming into this Friday:
A historic A-League start
With a win against Central Coast this Friday, the boys will have achieved the best start to a season in our club’s history. Four wins and one draw will account for 13 points, which will eclipse the 12 points we had back in 2017/18 when Warren Joyce marked the first month of his tenure in the league with four consecutive wins, before a 1-0 loss to Sydney.
Earlier this week we’d seen a few mentions of a ‘best start in league history’ if we were to secure the three points against Central Coast, and whilst we’re rubbishing those claims right now, they did spark a fun little venture into the murky depths of Transfermarkt stats to find out where we’d rank amongst the best historical A-League starts.
Here’s the breakdown. After five games, we’d be:
- The 22nd team to go unbeaten
- The 11th team to win four out of five
- The 6th team to start a campaign with 13 points, after Sydney x2 (16/17 & 17/18), Victory (06/07), Perth (18/19) and Brisbane (11/12).
The best-ever start to an A-League season was achieved by the Victory in 06/07 (Season 2), winning all of their first 7 games before a loss to Adelaide in Round 8.
IF we’re to even equal that, we’d need maximum points against CCM this Friday, Brisbane and Wanderers away, and then would need to beat Perth at home to actually break the record. Righto.
Gotta get past the Mariners first anyway, and speaking of which…
They’ve just knocked off Perth
Everyone pretty much assumed the Mariners would be their typical ‘Mariners’-selves and get battered when they travelled to Perth for their Sunday twilight fixture to close out Round 4.
Instead, Central Coast produced arguably the upset of the season thus far when they defeated the reigning Premiers 2-1, with goals from young guns Daniel De Silva and Samuel Silvera.
Whilst Perth dominated possession and scoring opportunities – including a whopping 15 corners to just ONE – Central Coast were able to hold on thanks to some staunch defending and a fair old amount of good fortune.
We’re hardly going to pump their tyres up, but it’d be pretty reckless to underestimate the Mariners and take this matchup for granted, especially under the inspired leadership of former-Matildas coach Alen Stajic.
10-Year Celebrations
This one’s not really about on-field matters, but it’s a talking point for City fans nonetheless.
The club’s acknowledging its beginnings as Melbourne Heart and is celebrating this Friday’s fixture against the Mariners as its official 10-year anniversary match.
For those that mightn’t recognise the significance of this particular opponent, it was the Mariners who we played back in our very first A-League match, way back on the 5th of August, 2010. The Thursday night fixture was played in front of a home AAMI Park attendance of 11,050 but ended in a 0-1 loss, with later-City player Alex Wilkinson getting on the scoresheet for Central Coast.
We’ve had it confirmed that the team will be taking to the pitch in this year’s red and white Third kit, a throwback to the Heart-era, so do your best to secure your ticket for Friday night’s clash because it’s sure to be an exciting match on a special occasion.
Melbourne City are set to host Central Coast Mariners at AAMI Park on Friday, November 6. Kick-off is at 7:30pm.
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