Crowell calls Central Coast home

Welsh national and former Hyundai A-League player Matthew Crowell has found a home in Australia and after burying a match winner at the death for his Central Coast Mariners Academy’s second league win, he looks to have found a home in the IGA NPL NSW Mens 1 competition. 
Crowell is a true journeyman of international football, on top of a Hyundai A-League season with the Central Coast Mariners he has featured in leagues through out England, Wales, China and Spain.
Affectionately known as Crowelly the aged professional is loving life on the Central Coast and hopes to be around for the long haul.
“I would love to stay in Australia, if I can find away I will be staying here as long as I can, that’s the plan,” Crowell said.
Unlike many of his fresh-blooded counter parts, Crowelly does not aspire to crack the big time, where he has already achieved big things.
He has very different goals to the boys around him and is happy playing a crucial senior role within the inaugural Central Coast Mariners Academy set up that provides a futuristic formula within the imminent make up of professional teams around Australia.
Crowell not only plays in the Academy side but he is also the Centre Manager at the Soccer5s complex which is a synthetic lay out of world class pitches that is a part of the Central Coast Mariners Centre of Excellence and unlike anything else in the country.
“I am really happy where I am playing at the minute, happy working, football won’t be around forever and I’m not getting any younger so if I can get a head start on some other things I’d be happy to do that and play as long as I can at the highest level I can,” Crowell told Football NSW.
With a difficult season of results, the Academy side is up against the odds when it comes to experience and Crowell is more focused on looking beyond the results and onto the development of his peers. 
“The table doesn’t lie, we were bottom for a reason but if people actually came to the games and seen things that happened, we just didn’t have the rub of the green.
You can’t knock the boys attitude and their effort but we are an academy and the project here is to get the young boys into the A-League and the NYL, so we’re not a team stacked with senior pros.”
These boys are 18-19 and some 20 so in a few years they will be a little older but still young enough,” Crowell said.”
Since the Mariners Academy’s first win there has been some more experience injected into the squad with Bradley McDonald and Adriano Pellegrino both featuring prominently since their arrival.
Half way through the season coach Mark Jones said that the only team who had outplayed them all year was Blacktown, but the belter from Crowell mentioned earlier marked a 5-3 victory over the tournament heavyweights, which sent a huge message to the rest of the competition.
On their day, the Mariners Academy can match it with the best, evident in results like their recent win over Blacktown and a hard fought 4-3 loss to Bonnyrigg.
However to their own peril they have been inconsistent in defence, which is expected from a squad that is built from youth, as seen in their 6-1 loss to Sutherland.
Crowell knows there is plenty of work to be done but has confidence in the young boys who are playing in a league that he holds in high esteem.
"I have been real impressed, there are plenty of boys running around who have played in the A-League or are capable of playing in the A-League, it’s been worthwhile coming here,”
This weekend the Mariners Academy will take on Sydney United 58 for the second time in a week which is a crucial match up as a win could potentially leap frog them above APIA Leichhardt and the South Coast Wolves for the first time this season.
Last weekend the Central Coast side again proved they have no issues attacking, netting twice at home, however they leaked another four goals and shown why they have conceded more times than any other team in the league (46).
-By Tyson Scott