Central Coast coach Mark Jackson has credited his side for keeping the faith and set the bar higher again after a 3-0 defeat of Brisbane stretched the Mariners’ unbeaten run to five games.

The defending champions lost their first four games of the A-League Men’s season, but have now jumped at least temporarily into the top six after Thursday’s clinical performance in thumping rain.

A double to Angel Torres followed a hat-trick from the midfielder last week, while Marco Tulio was denied a double of his own by the narrowest of margins.

It was the Mariners’ first win at Suncorp Stadium in 10 visits, dating back to 2014.

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Brisbane had five shots on target to the visitors’ four, and boasted 60 per cent of possession.

But in reality the Mariners were calling the shots after torrid rain and lightning forced the start to be delayed for 15 minutes, Roar coach Ross Aloisi conceding that it could have been uglier for his men on a dry night.

The Mariners have now scored 15 goals in a five-game stretch that includes three wins.

But Jackson, who took over from Nick Montgomery, thinks they can be even more clinical.

“It’s always difficult at the start of season, I had to stand in front of the players and ask them to trust us to stick to the process,” he said.

“When results don’t come it’s difficult to do that, but they stuck to the task.

“We’re growing … I still feel we’ve got lots more to come as a team.”

Rain fell for the entirety of the contest, but the pitch, showing the scars of a Foo Fighters concert just nine days ago, appeared to hold up well as 6855 soaked fans watched on.

Missing five starters through injury, Aloisi conceded that his men lost the physical battle and were forced to play backwards.

That contributed to some mix-ups in defence, Tulio twice running into space from a through ball, his second goal eventually overturned after a lengthy VAR process.

Torres scored his first when another back pass was intercepted in front of goal, before he iced the contest with his left boot in the final seconds.

Roar created few chances, Alex Parsons going close when he hooked his left-foot effort outside the post from long range with 12 minutes to play.

Keeper Danny Vukovic was forced into action in the 87th minute, diving low to save Jez Lofthouse’s close-range deflection off a brilliant Rylan Brownlie cross.

It was a second straight loss for Brisbane (4-3-2) after it had gone four games unbeaten, while the Mariners improved to 3-4-2.

“If I’m being honest, the physical side of things,” Aloisi said when asked why they lost.

“We work on playing forward and we just kept playing backwards.

“We come up against a side set up really well defensively and have got dangerous players up front.

“We’re lucky that it wasn’t a dry field.”

-AAP