Central Coast Mariners coach Paul Okon admits his battle to re-sign striker Roy O'Donovan grows more difficult with every goal the Irishman scores.
O'Donovan's value spiked again on Sunday when he buried a second-half brace against the Western Sydney Wanderers to secure the club's third successive A-League win for the first time in nearly three years.
It took his season tally to 10, equal with Melbourne Victory's Marco Rojas and Brisbane Roar's Jamie Maclaren, despite the fact the Mariners sit second-last.
As O'Donovan's two-year contract approaches its final three months the club have made overtures to retain its prized poacher and focal point of the team.
His manager Paddy Dominguez has confirmed he will speak to Central Coast first before entertaining interest from elsewhere.
While Okon hopes recent success will give O'Donovan a desire to stay the first-year coach knows it will be tough for his cash-strapped franchise to trump offers from better-resourced clubs, who he says are also targeting a chunk of his improving squad.
"It's difficult to find strikers who are going to score you 15 goals -- I think Roy's on 10," Okon said.
"We want to keep Roy, he knows that, I've spoken to him about it and the club has spoken with his agent.
"We've had a lot of emails come in, shopping lists from other A-League clubs for a lot of our players.
"Maybe after tonight's performance we'll get some more emails."
They may well come given the Mariners have nearly doubled their points tally from 10 to 19 in the space of three weeks.
Though still in ninth they now sit just two points outside the top six ahead of Sunday's home game against Victory, far exceeding expectations for the former wooden spoon favourites.
Sunday's 2-0 defeat of the Wanderers clearly meant a lot to Okon, who has been tasked with turning around a former title-winning club driven to its lowest ebb under predecessor Tony Walmsley.
The former Socceroos defender rushed out of the dugout to help his players celebrate O'Donovan's second goal.
"I just get the feeling there really isn't anyone out there that thinks the Mariners can play football," Okon said.
"I still think we're tagged from whatever happened last season.
"The discussion is always about how poor the opposition was and never about how good the Mariners were. That's disappointing.
"I don't think we'll go on a run and win the next eight games, but I certainly think what we've shown so far we should be given a little bit more credit for.
"Those emotions are off the back of that."