Paul Okon has doubled down on his belief Central Coast are playing the best football in the A-League as he prepares for his first F3 Derby as a coach.The Mariners take on the Newcastle Jets - who Okon captained in his final season as a player - at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday afternoon.Both sides have endured a tough start to the season, with only one win apiece after six rounds.But while the Jets are genuinely struggling on the back of a relentless injury toll, Okon insists the Mariners are playing slick, attractive football - they just dont have the results to prove it.I think some of the stats will show that. It just depends on how much you want to look into the stats, Okon said.I dont think any of our opportunities or goals weve scored have come from mistakes off the opposition - its all been stuff that weve worked on during the week, stuff that we really encourage in our playing style.Were going to continue that, we just need to make sure we can as quickly as possible translate that into victories.Okon played in two F3 Derbies during his stint with the Jets in the 2006-07 season, and was actually sent off in his first clash with the Mariners.He admits the fixture has lost some of the spice that once made it a highlight of the A-League calendar, but a new ticketing initiative allowing members of both clubs free entry to the match could change that.I just think the last couple of years it probably hasnt been the derbies it was previously. Hopefully Sundays a taste of whats to come, he said.Hopefully we can get that feeling back again, that atmosphere.Bookmakers have the Jets as strong favourites to win, despite skipper Nigel Boogaard suffering an ankle injury last week to further deplete Newcastles defensive stocks.His injury prompted the recruitment of Iain Fyfe on a short-term deal, with the former A-League veteran expected to start alongside the returning Ben Kantarovski in the centre of defence.STATS THAT MATTER* After a promising start to the season, Newcastle have now lost their last three games in a row; the last time they lost more was a four-game losing streak in Round 27, 2010/11.* All of the Mariners goals scored this season have been by the right boot; they are the only team yet to score from either a header or the left foot.* The last three iterations of the F3 Derby hosted by Newcastle have ended in a draw and not since November 2013 has either team scored multiple goals in such a fixture. Cheap Basketball College Jerseys . 10 Texas Rangers jersey for one last time. Young formally announced his retirement Friday after returning to Rangers Ballpark, his baseball home for all but the last of his 13 major league seasons. Wholesale NCAA Jerseys China .C. -- Al Jefferson joked that he feels he can score from anywhere on the court. https://www.chinajerseysncaa.us/ . -- The Sacramento Kings are set to become the first major professional sports franchise to accept Bitcoin virtual currency for ticket and merchandise purchases. Custom NCAA Jerseys . LOUIS -- St. Cheap NCAA Jerseys . -- An ugly goal by Nick Bonino helped the Anaheim Ducks overcome the defensive-minded Phoenix Coyotes on a night when their ragged power play continued to struggle. TROON, Scotland -- Phil Mickelson wore a black rain suit that he didnt need until he approached the far end of Royal Troon and already had stretched his lead. Henrik Stenson opened the curtains at his house expecting to see rain coming down sideways and was pleasantly surprised by the calm.Good golf and the good end of the draw is tough to beat in the British Open.Mickelson hit a wedge that spun back toward the cup until it stopped about two postage stamps away on the par-3 eighth hole, the signature shot in his 2-under 69 that allowed him to back up his record-tying start and take the 36-hole lead in a major for the first time in three years.I thought it was a good round to back up the low round yesterday, Mickelson said. I played kind of stress-free golf again. I made one or two bad swings that led to bogeys. But for the most part, kept the ball in play.He just couldnt shake Stenson, who timed his birdies perfectly.The Swede made three straight birdies before the wind showed up and the clouds began to spit rain. He added two more during lulls in the increasingly bad weather. And he wound up with a Friday-best 65 that enabled him to close within one shot of Mickelson.I was five back of Phil from yesterday, so of course I was hoping to gain a little, Stenson said. And the way it turned out, I gained quite a lot. Its still early in the tournament, though. Were only halfway through. But so far, so good. Im happy with the way I played the course. Its not easy out there.Try telling that to the players who had to endure an afternoon of gusts that topped 30 mph and rain so heavy at times it was hard to see.Some draws go your way, Rory McIlroy said, and some draws dont.Just look at the leaderboard.Mickelson was at 10-under 132, the best 36-hole total ever to lead at Royal Troon. Stenson, a runner-up to Mickelson at Muirfield in 2013, was one shot behind. Soren Kjeldsen and Keegan Bradley each shot 68 and were three shots behind.The top 14 players going into the weekend all played Friday morning. Of the 26 players still under par, only four of them played in the afternoon.The nature of links golf, and this championship, is getting the good side of the tee times. Mickelson was soaked when he walked off the course, though he managed to get in eight holes before the rain arrived. On the ninth hole, he had his caddie hold the umbrella over his ball on a 10-foot par putt, walking away at the last minute to watch his boss roll in into the cup, like hes been doing all week.Jordann Spieth? He was lucky to still be playing.ddddddddddddpieth battled through the worst of the elements to play the final six holes in even par for a 75 to finish at 4-over 146. Two hours before he finished, that looked as if it would earn him a trip back to Texas. Instead, he made the cut on the number.Its tough when we all realize before we go out that youre kind of what would be the bad end of the draw before you even play your second round, Spieth said.Then again, he wasnt sure it mattered the way he was playing.But at 4-over par, my game is not major championship-winning caliber those first two rounds, he said. It just made it pretty interesting and actually somewhat nervous on the last five, six holes because Id really like to play the weekend.McIlroy got within five shots of the lead until the weather and a few bad shots gobbled him up, and the four-time major champion dropped four shots in five holes. He had to settle for an even-par 71 and was eight shots behind, along with U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson (69).Jason Day, the worlds No. 1 player, had a 70 and was among three players who broke par in the afternoon.I felt like I shot a low-career round out there today with just how tough the conditions were, Day said.Mickelsons made his first bogey when he pulled an iron off the tee into the rough, missing a gorse bush by about two paces. He dropped another shot on the 15th when he pulled his drive into the rough and couldnt reach the green. Those were the mistakes, offset by a 25-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole when he played his tee shot off the back side of a bunker and let it feed toward the hole.He looked like a links specialist the way he used the ground. Then again, his name is on the silver claret jug for a reason.And he wouldnt mind seeing it there again.I dont feel the pressure like probably a lot of players do to try to win the claret jug because Ive already won it, he said. The desire to capture that claret jug puts a lot of pressure on. The fact Ive done it relieves some of that. I would love to add to it, but having already done that was big.Only two other players have started a major with rounds of 63-69. One was Raymond Floyd, who went on to a wire-to-wire victory at Southern Hills in the 1982 PGA Championship. The other was Greg Norman, who shot 78 in the final round of the 1996 Masters and lost a six-shot lead. ' ' '