Gold Coast United coach Miron Bleiberg said he was looking forward to the next month of football despite losing 3-2 to Newcastle on Sunday afternoon.
United suffered its second defeat to Newcastle in as many games in an enthralling see-sawing battle at EnergyAustralia Stadium despite sterling efforts from skipper Jason Culina, an impressive first-up performance by Charlie Miller and a brace of goals from Shane Smeltz.
“You lose the game [and] you have two options – to cry and climb on the wall or to think about the next game. And we have four home games in a row, so what is the better option? I try to stay young, if you cry you get old,” an effervescent Bleiberg said after the match.
“But look, we were part of good show. It was a good entertaining game, and we lost. The moment you see (Jobe) Wheelhouse scoring a goal like Maradona then you know it is not going to be your day.”
“I can’t remember when he scored a goal like this and then you see a speculative shot that hit the crossbar and falling; it could have been above the goal, it could have been into the goalkeeper’s hands but it went into the crossbar, and then you see Sasho Petrovski – I forget the last time he scored a goal – you have to look at the calendar to see when he scored a goal, so what can we do?”
“But overall I hate to lose when I deserve to win – that is when I hate it and when I am not smiling but when you know the other team was as good as you, you cop it, that is it.”
“I hate when we play against Melbourne and Muscat takes five penalties, that burns me, but a game like this is OK.”
“I think if we didn’t concede two stupid goals we could have won, but it was an even game. I think we played good enough to win it but I think Newcastle played good enough to win it so I can’t cry too much.”
Bleiberg said he was happy with Miller’s efforts in his first match with the club after joining from Brisbane earlier this week. He admitted that Newcastle’s marquee player Fabio Vignaroli stifled Miller’s contribution early but when the Italian came off injured the Scotsman was allowed more room and exerted more influence on the game.
“We didn’t get the ball to Charles in the first half, because we didn’t find him, but when Vignaroli came off injured, Charles started to get involved,” Bleiberg said.
“From memory he gave the beautiful pass to Smeltz to score and that is just an example of what Charles is capable of. And a few times he had a combination with Jason, so I know it will come.”
“Charles is a unique player and we have to learn how to play with him. And we were in a unique situation of having Jason away all week. So between Charles and Jason we didn’t have time to work all this week. So I am looking to the future – I am not upset because with Charles and Jason we are looking ahead for the next four home games.”
Bleiberg also said he wasn’t too upset about letting Culina miss training all week to compete in Australia’s Greatest Athlete competition on Stradbroke Island.
“A decision was made with the thought it was good publicity and good for the game because it was a battle of the codes, so the decision was to let him go. I am not going to complain or cry about it,” he said.
“Jason and Charles showed some good combinations already and I think with more time together the combination will get better, so I am looking forward.”
