Gold Coast United withstand the Fury

Gold Coast United scored two late goals against the North Queensland Fury in the second half to keep the glamour club undefeated.

The grudge match was just that, with no one holding back and four yellow cards handed out to the Fury and two to United.

Gold Coast United did not dominate, but were clearly the better team. They looked threatening and wanted the ball.

Left back Adama Traore was excellent, a class above the others, and Gol-Gol Mebrahtu was exciting up front when he was on.

Fury was solid at the back until the United young guns came on to cause havoc.

Overall, Fury looked shocking. Their strikers were covered in mud because they spent the whole game rolling in the dirt, missing headers and attempting to shoulder barge the Gold Coast United defence, but missing on most occasions.

Fury played like a ruff tuff Scottish team, as expected with Ferguson as coach, while United tried to play with style but failed to break down Fury’s defence.

Gold Coast United did okay playing out from the back, which was great to see, bar a few close calls.

Thwaite was good at the back, as was the Dutch man-mountain, Bas Van Den Brink.

Caravella plays similar to Massimo at Roar and looks the goods. Youth Marquee Tahj Minniecon was disappointing and was subbed due to illness.

Joel Porter went okay but missed a golden opportunity. Funny enough, he looks like a rugby player with shoulder pads ready for Origin.

With only one or two real chances created by Fury, I would be very worried unless they can get some creative talent to cover for Felipe.

Fowler will need quality service, otherwise what’s the point of having him.

Keep an eye out for young Traore, I think he is a youth international for Ivory Coast. He always played out from the back, wanted the ball all game, and always tried to attack and overlap.

Great stadium and attendance.

Only 5,000 tickets were available, and considering the cost of the tickets, the bad weather of late and with the big names out, the crowd was good with about 3,000 in attendance.

The low light was when security would not allow my eight year-old son to go to the pitch fence line to get autographs where other kids were doing so because the sat down the front.

This was disappointing as we drove for an hour and half from Lismore to support the team.