Auckland have moved back to the top of the A-League Men standings after easing to a 2-1 win over a slow-starting Central Coast.
With their goal coming off the head of Auckland defender Callan Elliot, it took until the 74th minute on Friday for Alfie McCalmont to register the Mariners' first shot on target on a sodden and sparsely attended evening in Gosford, with his side already trailing 2-1.
The Kiwis were in game management mode at that point, their match-winner delivered off the head of Sam Cosgrove just before the hour mark after they'd previously opened the scoring through Jesse Randall in the 20th minute.
The margin could have been even greater had the visitors been able to convert an early period of domination into more goals, with former Socceroo keeper Andrew Redmayne twice denying Cosgrove headers before Randall's opener.
"You look at that first half and how dominant we were; we went one up and got our just (rewards) with that," Cosgrove told Paramount.
"But then there's an onus on us up top, (when we're) dominating games like that, to go on and score two and three."
Starting a run of fixtures where they will play six of seven on the road, Steve Corica's side moved two points clear of Sydney with the result.
The Sky Blues need to beat Perth Glory in Western Australia on Saturday if they wish to reclaim the summit.
Boding well for the Kiwi side ahead of their difficult stretch, new signing Cosgrove has not only moved into equal top spot on the Golden Boot standings with four, but also has goal involvements in three straight games.
"It was a tough adaptation to the league," the Englishman said.
"I'll be honest, I'm still not there physically as of yet - there's still a lot to come from me.
"But in terms of the impact on the pitch, I've been content so far."
With Elliot's 33rd-minute error giving the Mariners hope despite their failure to have a shot in the opening stanza, an attempted late push came up short.
In more bad news for the home side, substitute Arthur De Lima pulled up lame with an apparent injury minutes after coming on.
"We are searching right now for a solution that's going to be effective in the final third (of the season)," interim boss Warren Moon told Paramount.
"We have to keep looking, keep working and keep trying to find something that's going to be more effective for us."
