The Central Coast Mariners have finally been put out of their Asian Champions League Elite misery early, officially dumped out of the tournament with still two more matches to play.
Following their 4-0 home defeat by Japanese giants Yokohama F Marinos on Tuesday, the Australian champions' hopes were finally extinguished 24 hours later after the sixth round of matches were completed.
With just one point - a draw against Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shenhua in November - in half-a-dozen games, the Gosford side's already slim hopes of making the knock-out stages are over, with even two victories in their final group matches now not being enough to pilot them to the required top-eight finish.
Mariners' boss Mark Jackson had ended up apologising to fans after a drubbing by the Yokohama side now managed by former Central Coast favourite John Hutchinson, saying after they'd fallen three down before the break: "I say sorry to our supporters because that first-half performance wasn’t acceptable.”
Wednesday's results came before a two-month break in the tournament, meaning the Mariners will return to complete their group stage campaign in February at home to Malaysia's Johor Darul Ta'zim and away at Japan's Kawasaki Frontale with nothing to play for in the elite competition.
Their fate was sealed on Wednesday after Frontale thrashed China's Shandong Taishan 4-0 while Ulsan HD launched a second-half fightback to defeat Shanghai Shenhua, a result that condemned the Mariners to being rock bottom of their eastern zone, two points adrift at the foot of the table.
Goals from Yago Carillo and Kang Min-woo earned former champions Ulsan a 2-1 win over Leonid Slutsky's side in Shanghai to pick up their first points of the campaign as the South Koreans climbed to 11th above the Mariners.
The top eight finishers in the league phase from both west and east Asia advance to the knockout rounds, with so far still no team from the eastern half having confirmed their progress.
The Mariners will hope to bounce back in A-League Men action on Sunday when they host Sydney FC.
