Central Coast Mariners proved just too strong and tenacious for a fluid but faltering Sydney FC side, running out winners 3-1 at the Sydney Football Stadium on labour day holiday Monday.

The W-League returned, as they say, in style again this weekend. The highlight of course being the final re-match of Brisbane Roar and Canberra United, won again convincingly by the northern team.

I took in the local match-up of the NSW production line, Sydney vs Mariners, with both sets of women often training together. There had been a bit of traffic both ways between the squads in the off-season - as it turned out the Coast may have done better out of it.

The Mariners pressed the sky-blues from the start, a portent if it had been heeded, but it was veteran Sydney striker Sarah Walsh who created the first chance when she was free at the edge of the box on the right in the 4th minute but failed to keep her feet as heavy rain fell.

The Mariners continued to have the better of the start, with Sydney looking for the break-away, however the visitors took the lead in the 12th minute.

Former Sydney player, Michelle Heyman, who had kept her skills honed with Illawarra Stingrays in the just completed NSW league, was picked out with sweet floating cross from the right. Heyman's header looped over Sydney keeper Nikola Deiter and into the net.

It was a cross from Jenna Spackman that should not have been as Sydney failed to close down and challenge for a loose ball on the right. 0-1

In the 23rd minute Sydney's Kyah Simon went close against her old side when Walsh out-ran Kelly Gobelowksi on the right and got the ball in to Leena Khamis loitering in the middle. Faced with the advancing defence she sprayed it out to the left where Simon had overlapped. Simon failed to control well or to find the target, going just wide on the left.

Renee Rollason, who had fronted for the Mariners at the launch, looked subdued and it was in the 27th minute when she made her first noticeable contribution, strolling through the midfield and launched a shot on target from 30m that Dieter held well.

In the 40th minute, Walsh found space again down the right but her cross couldn’t be controlled by Khamis, who shot over the goal. Just before the break, a short corner found Julie Rydahl right in front of goal. She managed to control the cross, but couldn’t control her volley and it also sailed over the cross bar.

Sydney was getting on top in possession as the Mariners high-tempo play wore themselves down before the half, however Teresa Polias let Sydney know to be wary with a long range speculator.

Sydney came out from the break ready to take the game to the Mariners and they found an equaliser two minutes in. In a counter-attacking move, Khamis laid the ball off to send Walsh clear on the right, with the Mariners defence caught. Walsh smashed the ball past Coast 'keeper Jillian Loyden to bring her team back to level terms. 1-1

Sydney continued to press and the Mariners struggled to contain their off the ball movement. Heather Garriock shot at an angle from the left and had the ball brush the top netting, while a scrambled 60th minute clearance from the Mariners area suggested that Sydney may convert the half-chances they were creating into a lead any time soon.

To the Mariners create that grafted away, trying to retain possession long enough to launch their own raids on the Sydney goal.

Inexplicably in one of these raids, at the 64th minute mark, the Sydney defence dropped off Heyman who had drifted right to make some space. Her surging run ended in a well taken goal, shooting str ongly across Dieter and into the left side of the goal mouth. 1-2

Sydney tried to bridge the gap, with Garriock, Walsh and Cannuli using all their experience to try to undo the, by now, re-tightened Mariners formation.

Its best chance came when substitute Catherine Cannulli beat her defender with her first touch, putting herself in the clear with only Loyden to beat, but her miss-timed shot went straight to the Central Coast keeper.

The home side pushed forward but this left them vulnerable to counter-attack and indeed Central Coast made them pay.

Heyman was always involved, and she took advantage of the space around Sydney’s backline, this time putting a clever ball through to Kelly Golebiowski who was overlapping with confidence as the Mariners own back-line soaked up any pressure. She neatly side-stepped the advancing Deiter and slipped the ball home to remove any doubt about a Mariners' victory. 1-3

Sydney could feel that they created more chances and had better possession, but it was the tenacity and sticking to game-plan by the Mariners girl's that told in the end. It makes for an interesting side-note on the game that Heyman had worn sky-blue last W-League season.