Central Coast wonderkid Garang Kuol capped his first A-League Men start with an assist in a 2-1 win over Sydney FC that was littered with flare-ups and controversy.
Kuol is bound for English Premier League side Newcastle United when the January transfer window opens and was finally let off the leash by Mariners coach Nick Montgomery and handed his first start.
The 6579 fans crammed into Gosford Stadium on Saturday got a glimpse of the young forward’s quality when he helped level the scores by setting up Mariners striker Marco Tulio for a 35th minute equalizer.
The teenager troubled Sydney leftback Diego Caballo all afternoon and his last touch before being substituted in the 67th minute was to fire a whipped shot agonizingly close to Andrew Redmayne’s goal.
“I had to protect him heading into the World Cup,” said Montgomery, who has just three more games to coach the 18-year-old before he heads off to England.
“It was a big test for Garang to start a game, there are a few actions where you can tell he’s still a kid who’s growing.
“In certain moments he’s devastating, in others he’s frustrating but he put everything on the line today.
“When he’s fully grown he’s going to be a seriously good player.”
Kuol’s starting debut was one of many talking points on Saturday.
After Paulo Retre had given Sydney an early lead, Mariners fans headed for the exit at the 20-minute mark in protest at the league’s decision to sell the grand final hosting rights to Destination NSW.
The club’s active support bay vacated their seats and held a banner aloft which called for APL chief executive Danny Townsend to resign.
Back on the pitch, and Sydney played some of their best football in the opening half an hour, until goals from Tulio and Mariners center back Dan Hall in the space of two minutes gave the Mariners a lead they didn’t let up.
Hall and Sydney winger Max Burgess had a nasty first-half clash of heads and Sydney boss Steve Corica was frustrated by the officiating.
Corica claimed that the Sydney medical team had called for referee Jack Morgan to stop the game so Burgess could be assessed for concussion but that the official did not listen.
“The referee is supposed to stop for three minutes, we need to ask why (that didn’t happen),” Corica said.
“They’ve obviously rushed him back on but the game should have been stopped so we could’ve assessed him properly.
“At halftime he wasn’t well, you could tell he was concussed.”
Burgess’ headknock forced Corica into bringing on Adam Le Fondre but the forward was unable to find an equalizer for the Sky Blues.
Captain Luke Brattan rattled the woodwork and forced Mariners keeper Danny Vukovic into a diving save late on before tensions boiled over an all-in melee capped off a helter-skelter game.
.