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Melbourne Heart climbed into the A-League top six but failed to capitalise on their dominance in a 0-0 draw with Gold Coast United at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
The Heart, who made several surprising changes to their starting lineup including benching skipper Simon Colosimo, created all the best chances and had 13 corners to their rivals’ none for the match.
But they still came away with just a point – Gold Coast keeper Glen Moss making three important saves and the Heart’s waywardness in front of goal proving costly.
Moss’ excellent reflex save denied Heart striker Eli Babalj the game’s best chance on 61 minutes.
The New Zealander’s quality save inside 10 minutes to keep out Heart midfielder Josip Skoko’s long-range shot proved the shape of things to come.
Winger Rutger Worm put two good chances just wide in the first half, and the Heart ramped up their dominance in the second.
First defender Aziz Behich forced Moss into a good save in the 56th minute, before turning hero five minutes late as Babalj bore down on goal.
As the corners rained down and possession was all in favour of the Heart, the frustration among the 6,000-plus crowd grew as they were unable to penetrate a determined Gold Coast defence – well marshalled by centre-back Dino Djulbic.
Gold Coast remain in the top four despite their draw.
The Heart were also without injured strikers John Aloisi (knee) and Alex Terra (calf), while Socceroos fullback Dean Heffernan was a late withdrawal with a hamstring strain.
But fully fit Colosimo was dropped for tactical reasons, according to Heart coach John van ‘t Schip.
And candid Gold Coast coach Miron Bleiberg believed his players may have relaxed once they realised the Heart were going with a more youthful starting side, admitting the home side deserved all three points.
“They surprised us in a few areas and when you see how many big names are missing for the Melbourne Heart, they (Gold Coast) think maybe it is an easy day at the office,” Bleiberg said.
“They bombed us with a few aeroplanes. It was not the Melbourne Heart that we planned to play against, and they played quite good.
“I don’t think we played bad, but with the statistics they have a better game.”
van ‘t Schip was thrilled with the performance of his young side despite their foibles in front of goal.
“We were very disciplined, we stayed in our organisation and in the second half, we surely deserved more,” van ‘t Schip said.
“We played some really good football and I have to give a compliment to all the boys and also the boys who came in.
“It’s good we can see the squad totally is growing and we get more depth with these players in.”
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