"Pohang made it really difficult for us tonight," said Hutchinson. "We had good movement, good forward runs and we obviously just tried to break down those low blocks that they created. It was not an outstanding performance, but a good performance."

Yan Matheus opened the scoring for Marinos four minutes before the break, with Anderson Lopes sealing the win with a penalty in injury time for their third win, after having opened their campaign with a 7-3 defeat against Korea Republic's Gwangju FC. 

“I’m happy with the boys and their performance. We ended up with the three points and have our game against Australia's Central Coast Mariners next. We want to win that game to climb the table.”

Pohang head coach Park Tae-ha acknowledged his team’s struggles and was already looking ahead to their upcoming fixtures.

"We have a big match against Ulsan HD in the Korean FA Cup this weekend, and we didn’t bring our best players for this game,” said Park. “Even though we fielded young players, the second team gained good experience, but the result was disappointing.

“Kim Myeong-jun played very well despite missing a late penalty. Hopefully, he will bounce back and produce a strong performance in the upcoming games."