Central Coast Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna has applauded his players' performance despite going down 5-4 to Sydney FC in the most astonishing game in the history of the Hyundai A-League in Gosford on Saturday night.

Playing in front of a record home crowd of 17, 541, the Mariners looked in total control early in the match, blazing out to a 2-0 lead courtesy of a third-minute free kick to midfielder Mile Jedinak and a superb striker's goal from Socceroo John Aloisi in the 15th minute.

But the sending off of Central Coast goalkeeper Danny Vukovic, for handling the ball outside the area and denying Sydney's Alex Brosque a clear goal-scoring opportunity, turned the game on its head.

Sydney pushed the ball around the park mercilessly, tiring out the undermanned Mariners before drawing level four minutes into the second half via goals to Iain Fyfe and Terry McFlynn, both from corners.

Despite the strong Sydney comeback, the Mariners never gave up and went ahead midway through the second half when Greg Owens converted from the penalty spot after reserve striker Matt Simon had been brought down in the area by Tony Popovic.

Two quick goals to Sydney bench players Adam Biddle and Brendon Santalab then handed Sydney the lead in a frenetic game before Adam Kwasnik looked like he had given the Mariners a share of the spoils with a goal four minutes from full time.

But Kwasnik was red carded for using his hand to stop a goal-bound header from Santalab in the dying minutes and Ufuk Talay stepped up to seal a dramatic win with the final kick of the game from the penalty spot.

"How much credit can you give our players? That second half performance – digging in, scoring goals and to lose the game the way we did was soul destroying." McKinna said after the match.

"It's hard to believe, when you go down to 10 men when you are leading 2-0."

"But the way we were going we could have been up four or five nil, we totally dominated and it was a fantastic performance from the boys tonight."

"As a game, you probably couldn't get a better advert for attacking football, but we'll pick ourselves up from that, that shows why we're top of the league and deserve to be top of the league."

McKinna said he hadn't talked to Vukovic after the match but laid no blame on the Qantas Australia Under-23 'keeper for a reactive error, saying that minor injuries to Aloisi, John Hutchinson and Andrew Clark as well as a suspected broken leg for defender Dean Heffernan had played as much a part in the balance of the game as Vukovic's dismissal.

"Football is a funny game and a cruel game sometimes and we have to deal with it," he said.

"Danny unfortunately got sent off and that put our backs against the wall. But it's disappointing to get so many injuries in a game like that. But let's take the positives out of the game, the boys gave everything and showed people what they can do."

"Our job now is to bounce back and get that 17,514 people back next week to see us play Melbourne."

The Mariners stay top of the table despite the loss and will be looking to inch closer to the minor premiership when they host the Victory on New Year's Eve.

a-league.com.au

A League table after Round 17