Mariners ‘not glad’ with Sydney star’s absence

Central Coast coach Mark Jackson is disappointed that Sydney FC star Joe Lolley will miss the Sky Blues’ A-League semi-final battle with the Mariners.

Lolley’s season is over due to a hamstring injury he suffered in Sydney’s 4-0 elimination final thrashing of Macarthur FC last Saturday night.

However, despite the winger’s absence seemingly aiding Central Coast’s chances of beating the Sky Blues in two-legged semi-final starting on Friday night at Allianz Stadium, Jackson would have preferred for Lolley to be playing.

“I like to come up against good players, I like to come up against good managers,” Jackson said.

”I don’t like to see players missing games. It (Lolley’s absence) is not a factor that we’re glad about.”

However, Lolley’s unavailability is likely to be welcomed by Mariners fans, whose travel-weary team will seek any advantage possible on Friday night.

Having beaten Lebanese club Al-Ahed 1-0 in the AFC Cup final in Oman early Monday morning (AEST), the Mariners arrived home on Tuesday night, with fatigue likely to be a factor at some stage in the first leg.

But the Mariners have the added motivation of trying to avenge two losses to Sydney during the regular season, as well as remaining on track to win the treble by adding the A-League championship to their premiership and AFC Cup success.

“We’re very hungry,” Jackson said.

“It doesn’t come around in football very often the opportunity to win trophies and titles. The players are really hungry for that.:"
He was also confident his players would not produce a tired performance such was the high they were on at the moment.

“When you’re winning games and you’re on that run, it’s a good feeling to be on,” he said.

“They (the Mariners players) want to play games, and they want to play big games as well, and there’s no bigger game than the one (on Friday) night, so they’re very excited for that.

“We know it’s going to be a big task against a really good team, but we’ve played in big games this season, we’ve had the pressure on us at certain times and we’ve proved we could deal with that.

“I’m sure they’ll be confident in what they can achieve, but we’ll be confident in what we can achieve as well. We know what they do, and we know where we can expose them.”

Jackson said that injured teenage talent Miguel Di Pizio was in “major doubt” for Friday night’s clash.