Central Coast coach Mike Mulvey is looking at recruiting newcomers to try to turn around the Mariners fortunes after a disastrous 2018, but there's unlikely to be a major injection of foreign talent.
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The Mariners year from hell concluded with a 4-1 New Year's Eve home thrashing by A-League leaders Perth in Gosford on Monday night.
If that wasn't bad enough for long suffering Mariners fans, their woes were compounded by a 40-minute break in the game to replace a goalpost snapped in just the tenth minute.
That meant the match carried on well past the traditional New Year's Eve 9:15pm (AEST) fireworks over the adjacent Gosford Waterfront.
Some fans in the crowd of 6048 had already left well before then, with the hapless Mariners trailing 3-0 at halftime.
The optimism generated by the signings of Tommy Oar and Ross McCormack, the boost in profile caused by Usain Bolt's pre-season trial and two draws in their first two games has thoroughly dissipated.
Bolt left after failing to reach terms with the Mariners, while McCormack has missed the last five games and returned to his English club Aston Villa to have a knee injury assessed with doubt existing over whether he will come back.
Oar missed five games with injury before returning off the bench on Monday night.
The Mariners have lost nine straight, conceding 22 goals and never less than two in any of those defeats.
They won just one of 24 league games in 2018.
The Central Coast haven't kept a clean sheet in 16 games since their most recent win in February.
Mulvey accepts the frustration of Mariners fans and has revealed the club is looking at freshening the squad.
'We're looking to January to see if we can turn things around with possibilities," Mulvey said.
"We're had some good talks upstairs and we're looking at what we can do.
'We've had some good conversations and we are working hard and we are looking at the players that could potentially come in and help us."
Asked if that could include some foreign players, Mulvey said: "if you go and bring a foreigner in they've got to wait six weeks before they get their visa.
"So you're into the middle of February before you do that, so that might not be possible."
Mulvey said he knew which positions he wanted to strengthen but divulging that would be unfair to his players.
Australian Associated Press
