A Bruce Djite hat-trick gave a record Skilled Park crowd plenty to crow about on Saturday night as Gold Coast revived their top-two A-League hopes with a 5-1 thrashing of Newcastle.
The ruthless fourth-placed Coast moved back into striking distance of Adelaide and Central Coast with their best victory of the season to put a major question mark over the injury-riddled Jets finals claims.
One of four teams fighting for the last two play-off spots, Newcastle (31) remain seventh, two behind the Heart (33) who drew 2-2 against the Victory (34) in the Melbourne derby.
A crowd of 14,783, boosted by Coast owner Clive Palmer’s generosity in throwing the gates open to raise funds for flood relief, lapped up the Coast’s opportunistic display, highlighted by Djite’s treble and an Adama Traore classic, which laid the foundations for the drubbing.
The home side went into the match without regular starters Zenon Caravella and John Curtis, who were rested, but they weren’t missed as Traore produced a stunning ninth-minute volley for one of their classiest goals of the season.
Golgol Mebrahtu skilfully beat Jets debutant Sam Gallaway in the right corner before a failed clearance allowed Bas van den Brink to pass to the unmarked Ivorian who hammered home a curling left-footer from the edge of the penalty area.
The Jets, missing six first-team starters with Kasey Wehrman and Ruben Zadkovich the latest to fall the club’s injury crisis, went close to equalising twice through Labinot Haliti who forced Glen Moss into desperate saves.
But Newcastle’s good work was undone in the 36th minute when poor defending allowed Dino Djulbic to head a corner into the path of Djite who finished his first of three from close-range.
Shane Smeltz hammered the nail in the Jets’ coffin on the hour when he cooly slotted home from the edge of the box following some more impressive lead-up work by Mebrahtu and Van den Brink.
Smeltz could have had two goals in three minutes but hit the right upright with a penalty after Tarek Elrich was yellow-carded for bringing down Traore.
Elrich atoned with a run down the right flank and centre for Newcastle’s only bright spot, a 75th-minute consolation goal for Chinese striker Zhang Shuo.
It was battering ram Djite, though, who had the final say with his powerful fifth and sixth goals in three matches to further embarrass the club which knocked the Coast out of last season’s finals series.
Golden Boy
Guest
I was in the Eastern Stand with friends on the half way line and we were packed in tight. Looking across to the Eastern Stand it was well enough attended with patrons, but the southern end was fairly sparse. However, take those in the Eastern block and the Southern Block and jam them into the eastern Block and Northern Block it would fill those sectors adequately with some to spare. So that would represent more then half full. The capacity of the Stadium is 27K if you divided that number it would be 13.5k. But with the extras it would reach 14.5k easily. I and my party came to that conclusion before the ground figure was announced on the night.
Realfootball
Guest
Sorry, but I still don't buy that crowd figure, and I see from posts on 442 that several others who were there came to the same conclusion as me. All that is by the by, though. All that counts is paying customers. GCU will be back to less than 3000 for their next home game. It comes down to Bleiberg. I think we could all live with Mensink. After all, he was new to the game. Bleiberg, however, simply alienates supporters wherever he goes. He has been an absolute disaster for Gold Coast.
Andyroo
Guest
Easily comparable to Titan's crowds if you doubt the figure, the ends behind the goal are not a huge % of the seats.
Golden Boy
Guest
For your information there was 14k. I was there too and it was definitely more then half full.
Stu
Guest
I just hope thy Brisbane can outdo the GC crowd figure at their own stadium. Bring on Wednesday!!! -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
Realfootball
Guest
The crowd figure is complete fiction. I was there. For that number of people, the stadium is slightly more than half full. It was nowhere near that. One end was empty; the home end was about half full. The western stand was about 1/3 full. The eastern standard was reasonably full, but there were a lot of empty seats. By my calculation this means that the stadium was around 1/3 full, which is 9,000. When the figure was announced the reaction said it all: instead of cheering, there was silence. The silence of incredulity. The Beach numbers are less than half what they were in the first half of last season. This was a fine, warm night, with the game in a sterling cause, tickets free, and all GCU could pull was 9,000 (+-2k to be generous). There really is no hope for this club. If the Titans were free, every seat would be taken. So is it the club or is it the code? GCU are still disliked in their own community. Bleiberg is a self aggrandising clown who can't coach: Mensink has got everyone offside and doesn't have a clue about running a sports club, but is Palmer's brother in law; increasingly, people are seeing that Palmer's heart is in the right place, but until the club loses Bleiberg and Mensink, there is no way forward. The team get on like cats in a sack. The disharmony and dislike are obvious from the stands. Djulbic's shove from Smeltz over the fact that the Failed Kebab insisted on taking the shot when it was Djulbic's role was a classic example. Then the Turkish Turkey missed it. Priceless. Djulbic was beside himself with fury on the half way line. Thank God Brisbane is just up the road.
pete
Guest
GCU could be the dark horse. Brisbane and Adelaide are clearly the best 2 teams but CCM and GC are getting closer