Gold Coast United have missed their chance to finish in the top two on the A-League ladder after being defeated by the North Queensland Fury 2-1 at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Saturday night.

A home crowd of 8,517 got to see the Fury have a win in their last game of the season with David Williams and Terry Cooke scoring goals while the Gold Coast could only manage a goal from Joel Porter.

The visitors will finish the home and away season in third spot behind Melbourne (47 points) and Sydney FC (45 points) with the competition powerhouses to battle for the premiership on Sunday at Sydney Football Stadium.

Meanwhile North Queensland avoided the wooden spoon with the result.

Conceding a free kick deep within their own half within the first minutes of the game, North Queensland were put under pressure early with Jason Culina’s kick finding Michael Thwaite’s head but drifting over the goal.

The Fury took control in the eighth minute with Williams receiving a through ball giving him open space to make a break and get a shot away that hit the crossbar.

Cooke was there to pick up the pieces getting a shot away that deflected off two Gold Coast players and then fell back to the feet of the original playmaker Williams to shoot the ball into the back of the net.

In the 43rd minute Cooke looked for the Fury’s second goal getting a low fast shot away that was desperately deflected by a diving Gold Coast goalkeeper Jess Van Stratten.

Coming into the second half one down, Gold Coast’s Shane Smeltz created the equaliser by getting the ball to Porter who got away a long low shot that slipped through Fury goalkeeper Justin Pasfield’s legs to level the scores after 62 minutes.

North Queensland looked to break the deadlock and put the game away in the 83rd minute when Paul Kohler got an accurate cross into a diving Cooke who managed to get his head to the ball and find the back of the net to give the Fury a 2-1 lead.

Gold Coast had a last effort on goal during injury time with a header from Smeltz being pushed out of play by Pasfield.

Gold Coast United coach Miron Bleiberg was blunt in his assessment of the game.

“We didn’t deserve it and Fury were better on the day especially in the first half,” he said.

“Last week was unfortunate and this week if we were good enough we should have won.

Miron put some of the blame for the result of the game on himself.

“I don’t feel clear that I did everything within my power to win the game as a coach.”

North Queensland coach Ian Ferguson was pleased with his team’s effort.

“We knew had to try and get a win. It was a fantastic effort again.

“I’ve been saying that week in and week out for them.

“I think that’s six undefeated… that’s a massive win for us. It puts us in seventh place clear which is a great effort from everybody.”

Ferguson did acknowledge that he was slightly disappointed that his team was so close to making the finals.

“To find out your probably two points off the top six is very disappointing but to get seventh place in the first year is a great achievement.

© AAP 2012

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