Central Coast Mariners' hopes of a play-off spot in the Hyundai A-League 2009/10 season have been extinguished, after a heartbreaking loss at the hands of finals-bound Perth Glory.

The man who scored a double inside the opening 15 minutes, Daniel McBreen, will be in a Mariners player next season, something which the club will now be focusing on, after qualifying for the top six became mathematically impossible.

Starlet Mitchell Mallia became the youngest player to ever don the Mariners shirt when he entered the fray late in the match at 17 years, 10 months and 9 days old.

But despite a mini shake-up, Central Coast were left to rue a first half which saw McBreen strike in the first and 13th minutes, and Andrija Jukic add a third in stoppage time.

The Mariners only goal came four minutes after the interval when half-time substitute Adam Kwasnik benefitted from good work by Nik Mrdja and Brad Porter to score.

"I could come out and say the boys looked flat, they looked tired, they looked under pressure but that wasn't the case," said Mariners manager Lawrie McKinna.

"The boys were up for the game, they knew we had to go out and win it and we honestly felt we could go out and do that.

"You can prepare all you want, you can have everyone looking good on a whiteboard, but you can't make basic mistakes like we did.

"We've gone from having the best defensive record in the league to copping goals that are just not good enough."

The Mariners' final home match of the Hyundai A-League 2009/10 season will be against Newcastle Jets on Saturday 6th February.