Gold Coast catches Melbourne
Gold Coast United has come up trumps in a spiteful encounter with Melbourne Victory at Skilled Park on Friday night courtesy of a 20-yard screamer from Zenon Caravella late in the second half which was ultimately the only goal that separated the two sides.
After a fiery match that saw seven bookings, Gold Coast has now gone seven matches unbeaten at home and moved onto equal points with Melbourne which sits first on the ladder with 44 points.
After an incident-packed goalless first-half, Gold Coast dominated second-half possession and the well-earned breakthrough came on 77 minutes when Caravella rifled his curling effort into the back of the net, sending the home crowd wild.
The Victory suffered a major setback before kick-off with striker Archie Thompson failing to recover from an ankle knock he picked up in Tuesday night's 4-0 win over Wellington.
Melbourne coach Ernie Merrick drafted right-back Mathew Kemp into the starting 11 along with midfielder Nick Ward but without Thompson the Victory were unable to find any real menace up front.
Gold Coast's midweek worries over the fitness of Shane Smeltz and Charlie Miller were dismissed as the pair took their place in the starting line-up, fully recovered from their respective viruses.