Gold Coast United have cemented top spot in the National Youth League with a dominant 3-0 win over Newcastle Jets at Owen Park on Saturday afternoon.
Gold Coast United have cemented top spot in the National Youth League with a dominant 3-0 win over Newcastle Jets at Owen Park on Saturday afternoon.
Goals from Mitch Cooper, Ben Halloran and Zac Anderson – the first two creatively fashioned by Tahj Minniecon – were enough for United to widen the gap between themselves and second-placed Brisbane Roar to four points with a game in hand.
United were in total control for almost the entire match but despite numerous forays forward in the opening periods could not find the killer pass needed to penetrate the Jets defence.
In the 20th minute they found it through Minniecon, who crafted a perfect ball to put Cooper through on goal with almost half the pitch ahead of him and Jets defender Kyle Ewart hot on his case.
Cooper did well to beat Ewart and go one-on-one with Newcastle gloveman Robbie Kolak and the youngster kept his cool, rushing forward to calmly slot home the first score of the afternoon.
Gold Coast needed a second goal to really stamp their dominance on the match and nearly had it moments into the second stanza as Fabian Iacovelli cleared a Anderson header off the line to keep the margin at just one goal – but in the 60th minute United had another through some more Minniecon mastery.
The exciting forward was again the architect after bamboozling two Jets defenders on the left side and crossing in a low ball for Halloran to simply tap in to make it 2-0.
Mario Simic could have clawed one back for Newcastle in the 68th minute but his shot fizzled past the right post in a reprieve for the hosts.
Ten minutes later Halloran almost had a brace after the ball spilled out to him from a free kick, but his darting shot from outside the danger area was parried away by Kolak.
From the ensuing corner, Lustica picked out Anderson and his header looped neatly over Kolac and into the back of the net to end Newcastle’s chances in the 80th minute.
As the match drew to a close United had numerous opportunities to nab a fourth – the best from Bobby Russell, who made a dazzling run for half the pitch only for his shot to go inches wide – but they had already done enough as Gold Coast United opened up a comfortable buffer at the top of the NYL table with the win.
