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Tussle ... Trent Sainsbury and Nick Montgomery pressure Blake Powell. Source: By Dean Lewins / AAP
A resurgent Sydney FC stunned A-League leaders Central Coast with Brett Emerton grabbing a late winner to seal a 1-0 victory on Thursday.
Emerton's 89th-minute winner secured the three points to lift the Sky Blues off the bottom of the ladder into ninth place.
The Sky Blues looked a different side to the one that was thumped 7-2 by the Mariners in their last encounter in what was an end-to-end clash at Allianz Stadium.
Sydney showed a sense of urgency from the start with Yairo Yau creating a chance for stand-in skipper Emerton a minute in.
| P | W | D | L | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Central Coast | 13 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 27 |
| 2 | Adelaide | 13 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 25 |
| 3 | Western Sydney | 13 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
| 4 | Victory | 12 | 6 | 2 | 4 | -2 | 20 |
| 5 | Perth | 13 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 18 |
| 6 | Wellington | 13 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 16 |
| 7 | Newcastle | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | -7 | 16 |
| 8 | Brisbane | 13 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 14 |
| 9 | Sydney | 13 | 4 | 1 | 8 | -11 | 13 |
| 10 | Heart | 13 | 3 | 3 | 7 | -4 | 12 |
But the Mariners attack soon began to create headaches for Sydney, easily getting past the Sky Blues defence with both the league's leading goal scorer Daniel McBreen and Joshua Rose forcing saves from Vedran Janjetovic.
Alessandro Del Piero showed his impressive skills to win the ball and go on a defence-busting run, with Socceroos goalkeeper Mat Ryan saving his shot.
The Juventus legend looked like putting the hosts in front just before the break, causing a goal-mouth scramble with a curling corner that Trent Sainsbury did well to clear off the line.
The Sky Blues continued to pepper the Mariners goal with shots in the second half. Both Adam Griffiths and Blake Powell got the 16,887-strong crowd on their feet with dangerous strikes.
Re-live the action in our Match Centre, plus VIDEO highlights.
The match was briefly interrupted in the 63rd minute when a streaker took to the field.
McBreen had a golden opportunity to break the deadlock in the 74th minute when he found himself one-on-one with the the keeper, but Janjetovic saved the strike from point-blank range.
Tomas Rogic could have stolen a win in the dying minutes when late substitute Mitchell Duke supplied him with a perfect cross into the box but the Mariners playmaker sent his shot over the bar.
Sydney's Rhyan Grant replied with a fierce strike that was only denied by the woodwork. Ali Abbas then played a perfect ball to Emerton with the Socceroo heading home the winner.
Frustration boiled over for the Mariners with John Hutchinson sent off in injury time after earning his second yellow card.
It got worse for the Mariners with Rogic getting a straight red card for a tackle on Grant.
"Of course we believed we could win that game,'' Sydney coach Frank Farina said. "You've got to believe that otherwise there's no point turning up.
"It was pleasing to get the result, but even more so the work ethic and the fighting they showed out there tonight.''
Graham Arnold was full of praise for the much-improved Sydney side.
"It wasn't one of our better displays,'' he said. "But give credit to Sydney, I thought they played very well tonight. It was probably the best they've played all year.
"So we have to get used to the fact that we're sitting at the top of the table and teams will lift against us.
"You saw tonight they were prepared for the fight and I think they were still hurting from the 7-2 loss and they wanted some revenge and they got it.''
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