McKinna: We lost it
Central Coast Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna said the Hyundai A-League Premiers only had themselves to blame for losing Sunday's grand final at the Sydney Football Stadium.
In a match which had its fair share of contentious moments, including a last-minute penalty appeal from the Mariners which would have given them the chance to equalise in the 93rd minute, McKinna said his men had played below their best and had allowed Newcastle to dominate for key moments of the game.
"We didn't play well. In the first half, Newcastle we knew they'd come at us the first 20 minutes. We held on quite well," he said.
"We turned the game a bit. In the second half, we needed to get more out of Owens and Kwasnik, which we did, we started pinning them back and creating a few good chances. Then we just started giving the ball away in good positions."
It was one of those mistakes which led to the Jets goal. Veteran Tony Vidmar, playing his final club match after a decorated career, gave up possession to Mark Bridge in the 64th minute and then had to watch as the Qantas U-23 representative galloped away and finished brilliantly.
"It was unfortunate for Viddy to give away the goal like that. It's very hard on us when we don't play well, and we lose a Grand Final on the mistake," Vidmar said. "We didn't play well, so we probably lost it."
McKinna said it was particularly hard on Vidmar, who had forged a reputation over a 20-year career as a strong and disciplined player who rarely made mistakes.
"Viddy's going to be disappointed. We've all played and we all make mistakes. Viddy's going to be gutted for that. It's such a nice thing to go out as a winner. But he's been a great servant for us and a great servant for Australian football. He's got his next part of (his) career to look forward to," McKinna said.
But despite the defeat, McKinna said there was nothing in the preparation that indicated the Mariners were going to be flat on the biggest day of the year.
"We couldn't have done our preparation any better. We had most of the boys training. Everything was good. There was no excuses. It was just one of those days where we didn't play as well as we had been. Two weeks ago we dominated them off the park, tonight it was a battle."