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Adrian Segecic scored his first-ever hat-trick as Sydney FC returned to winning ways and climbed to fifth on the A-League ladder after defeating Central Coast Mariners 4-1 at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.
With the contest in the balance at 1-1, substitute Segecic replaced Anas Ouahim after 55 minutes and got his first goal with a strong right-footed finish in the 72nd minute before doubling his tally on the opposite foot to end any hopes of a Mariners comeback.
The 20-year-old then sent an unstoppable strike past Dylan Peraić-Cullen to complete his first three-goal haul.
Still missing marquee import Douglas Costa, it’s now five games unbeaten for the Sky Blues.
Mark Jackson’s side remain in ninth after registering just one victory in six matches, ten points adrift of ladder leaders Melbourne City as their premiership defence becomes increasingly unlikely.
Against the run of play, it took just 11 minutes for the Sky Blues to open the scoring through Patryk Klimala, the Polish striker netting his fifth A-League goal after missing out in the 3-0 win over Perth on Wednesday.
Joel King kept his composure in the penalty area, squaring for Klimala who finished into an open goal.
Klimala and in-form Joe Lolley were looking ominous and a second Sydney goal appeared inevitable but Central Coast struck next, with Steele capitalising on some shambolic defending.
Ufuk Talay’s side failed to clear a set piece but Harrison Devenish-Meares would have dealt with Steele’s effort if not for Klimala’s header that looped over the keeper’s head.
With the game in the balance Segecic latched onto Anthony Caceres’ quality through ball and kept his cool with a good finish across Dylan Peraić-Cullen.
Not a team to sit back on a lead, Sydney kept pushing and Segecic doubled his money with another nice strike, this time on his left boot, to sink the Mariners.
The rising star then sealed his hat-trick with a bullet from outside the penalty area.
Experiencing a breakout campaign back in the sky blue jersey after spending 2023-24 on loan in Holland, Segecic scored Sydney’s second hat-trick in three days after Joe Lolley’s excellent display against Perth.
There is a logjam in the Sky Blues’ attacking spots, with the likes of Jaiden Kucharski, Patrick Wood, Ouahim and Nathan Amanatidis all also vying for minutes in the forward line. But with more performances like this one, Segecic will rocket up the pecking order.
“Adrian’s been fantastic since day one,” Talay said.
“His mentality, his attitude, has been sensational for us, for me as a coach to have these types of players within the squad. There’s been times he could have been frustrated when he wasn’t playing. He had moments of when he’s done well, then we made a decision to not play him in this game and bring him on later and he definitely made an impact.
“We don’t talk about ‘go out there and score three goals’, which he did, but just play in the right areas and I thought he did very well when he came on.”
Melbourne City are top of the A-League after a 1-0 win against Brisbane at AAMI Park, albeit only on goal difference and with their nearest challengers Adelaide United and Auckland boasting games in hand. Despite their considerable injury toll – with Socceroos Marco Tilio, Andrew Nabbout and Mat Leckie all still missing – Aurelio Vidmar’s side are in the midst of a three-game winning streak and seven games unbeaten.
Youngsters Medin Memeti and Harry Politidis have got their chance in the veterans’ absence and both have grasped it with both hands, deputising impressively as City climb to the top of the standings. Twenty-one-year-old Patrick Beach has looked good at times but has also made some costly errors with the gloves.
Conversely, Brisbane’s record worsened to 0-2-10 as Ruben Zadkovich continues to struggle in possibly the toughest top job in the league. Zadkovich does not have much to work with, but even then at most other clubs it’s unlikely a head coach could survive such a record. It’s clear the Bakrie Group are apathetic at best concerning the health of the club at this stage.
Earlier, Adelaide put together back-to-back wins with a 2-1 victory over Wellington at Sky Stadium. The Reds would have been smarting after disappointingly throwing away points in consecutive home games after a very encouraging start to their 2024-25 campaign, but they’ve now stabilised to sit second in the league, defying many pre-season expectations that they would struggle to even be in the finals picture after the significant departures of Joe Gauci and Nestory Irankunda.
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