Gold Coast United’s frustrations continued on Friday night when they were held to a lacklustre scoreless home draw against the struggling Wellington Phoenix. Shane Smeltz, playing against his former club, had a chance to give United the lead after just five minutes, only to be stopped by a courageous save by Phoenix keeper Mark Paston, who from close range launched himself at Smeltz’s foot to stop him getting a shot. At the other end, United keeper Jess Vanstratten, put in an acrobatic save to stop Leo Bertos from scoring, following it up with a reflex save to keep Paul Ifill’s shot away from the corner of the net. But United continued to create chances, and with just minutes to go before half time Matthew Osman found himself one-on with Pasdon; but the shot was usuccessful. Scores remained deadlocked at half time, and the second side saw both sides creating a few chances, but neither side having the ability to finish off the job and score. Jason Culina had the best chances, but found Mark Paston’s goalkeeping work too good to get past. Shane Smeltz had a long-range shot that narrowly missed the goal, but Paston looked to have it covered before allowing the ball through for a goal-kick. In the final minutes, the game came to life when a heated exchange between Vince Lia and Robson resulted in punches being thrown and both players receiving yellow cards. But neither side had any way of breaking the deadlock; and after 90 minutes off football that never reached any great heights, the game finished as it started with the scores locked at 0-0. Gold Coast United 0 Wellington Phoenix 0. United – J Vanstratten, Anderson (Milson 75), K Rees, M Thwaite, A Traore, B Van den Brink, Robson, J Culina, M Osman (J Brown 68), J Porter, S Smeltz (M Byrnes 89). Sub not used – S Higgins. Phoenix – M Paston, A Durante, T Lochhead, M Muscat, B Sigmund, L Bertos (A Caceres 89), T Brown, Daniel (F Barbarouses 80), V Lia, C Greenacre, P Ifill. Subs not used – R Crowther, T Hearfield. Yellow Cards : United – Robson 87. Phoenix – V Lia 87. Red Cards – Nil. Referee - G Parsons. Crowd – 4,209 at Skilled Park. Perth Glory blew a golden opportunity to head to the top of the A- League ladder, when an own goal saw them held to a 1-1 draw against North Queensland Fury at ME Bank Stadium on Saturday afternoon. |
ROUND 10 Friday 9th October Melbourne v Sydney (8:00pm) Perth v Adelaide (10:00pm) Sunday 11th October Central Coast v Nth Queensland (3:00pm) Brisbane v Gold Coast (5:00pm) ROUND 11 Friday 16th October Adelaide v Sydney (8:00pm) Saturday 17th October Brisbane v Central Coast (7:00pm) North Queensland v Wellington (9:00pm) Sunday 18th October Newcastle v Melbourne (3:00pm) Gold Coast v Perth (5:00pm) All times shown are Sydney time. |
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