International signing seals the deal

New Melbourne City recruit, Carl Jenkinson, attempts to block Manchester City's Raheem Sterling, during Jenkinson's time at West Ham United. 265791 Picture: AAP IMAGES

By Lachlan Mitchell

Melbourne City travelled north on Sunday afternoon to take on Central Coast Mariners and were looking to get back on the winners list after a last-start two-all draw with Adelaide United.

City made three forced changes going into the match with Scott Jamison missing after accumulating five yellow cards and Nuno Reis’s clumsy challenge in their previous match saw him seeing red.

Melbourne also welcomed the inclusion of Carl Jenkinson into the side.

Jenkinson is on loan from second tier English side Nottingham Forest.

The English international also had a long stint at powerhouse side Arsenal before being moved on.

The Melbourne team started quickly, dominating possession through the midfield and creating plenty of chances on goal, The boys from Melbourne finally took full advantage of there ascendancy through none other than Jamie McLaren in the 18th minute.

McLaren was set up by a power strike by 19-year-old debutant Jordan Bos, taking a deflection from the keeper and falling to the foot of the lethal striker.

The Mariners began to wrestle back momentum and levelled the score just before half time through a curler from Marco Urena.

The away side came out after the break energised, leading to a second half domination.

Andrew Nabbout was perfectly set up by French international Florin Berenguer. The Frenchman’s cross to Nabbout left him one-on-one with the keeper seeing City regain the lead.

Jenkinson was introduced into the game in the 68th minute after starting the game on the bench. Jenkinson quickly found himself in the thick of the action after a chaos corner dropped to his feet…scoring from point blank range.

City running out 3-1 winners in a very comprehensive victory. The win sets Melbourne up well moving forward with plenty of match practice for a lot of younger players.

Melbourne city coach Patrick Kisnorbo had plenty of praise for young gun Jordan Bos.

“Jordan is all about learning and he has waited a long time for his opportunity but I think he did a great job,” Kisnorbo said.

“He still has areas of improvement he needs to work on but, overall, I thought he did some good stuff.”

City is set to lose a number of high-quality players to international duty in the coming weeks, with Australia set to host a World Cup qualifier against Vietnam on 27 January in Melbourne.

“I’m happy for the players and it’s a world cup qualifier and its great to see our players get picked, and we have to play games,” Kisnorbo said.

“We have to adapt and more on, see what we have.”

The win sees Melbourne City move into third place on the table. City will be hoping to continue this winning run into next week when they face cross-town rivals Western United at AAMI Park.