Mariners held by Wanderers at home

Central Coast Mariners have played out a 1-1 home draw with Western Sydney Wanderers in their opening A-League clash.

Both sides started the contest brightly at the Bluetongue Stadium in Gosford, but it was the hosts who had the better chances in the first half with Marcos Flores, Nick Fitzgerald and Mile Sterjovski all going close.

The Mariners' pressure eventually paid off 10 minutes into the second half when Mitchell Duke found the target from inside the penalty box after being set up by Flores.

The introduction of Shinji Ono just past the hour mark gave the Wanderers more bite in attack as the 34-year-old midfielder created two good chances for his teammates before himself testing goalkeeper Justin Pasfield with a free kick on 81 minutes.

The visitors eventually found the equaliser with three minutes left on the clock when Tomislav Juric turned in Youssouf Hersi's cross from the right.