With his side now dead last on the Hyundai A-League table, Kristian Rees has had a brief taste of life with the wooden spoon in his grasp – and the Gold Coast United defender doesn’t like it one bit.
With his side now dead last on the Hyundai A-League table, Kristian Rees has had a brief taste of life with the wooden spoon in his grasp – and the Gold Coast United defender doesn’t like it one bit.
There are plenty more twists and turns to come this season – it is only six weeks old after all – but already, Rees is certain of one thing: bottom place is not where his club belongs.
That’s exactly where they find themselves, though, after being leapfrogged by Wellington Phoenix, who withstood a 90-minute blitzkrieg from champions Brisbane to escape Suncorp Stadium with a draw on Sunday.
This is Gold Coast United – founded by billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer, and born into a culture of on-field excellence after his declaration that United would go through their inaugural campaign undefeated.
That air of expectation still remains. At the start of this season, Palmer said coach Miron Bleiberg had assembled the best squad in Gold Coast’s short history – even after the departures of Jason Culina and Shane Smeltz.
But six weeks in, United are reeling after consecutive losses that have left them with a total of just five points after a month and a half of football.
“I’m just sick of losing. I hate losing,” Rees said.
“I don’t like being near the bottom of the table. As a defender, it hurts even more that we’ve been copping a few goals.”
“It’s frustrating and being part of Gold Coast United, it’s not really acceptable to be down that low on the table.”
It’s a new experience for Rees and Gold Coast, but their attention has now turned to finding a way out of these unchartered waters by way of victory against Melbourne Heart this Friday night.
Given their desire to lift themselves from their current cellar-dweller status, it’s no surprise this match has been labeled a must-win.
Bleiberg can see a number of parallels between his own men and the Heart – two sides who aim to play attractive, attacking football, but have rarely been able to translate that into winning terms.
Indeed, both Gold Coast and Melbourne Heart have only been able to get things to truly work just once this season.
For United, that was their 3-1 win against Newcastle nearly three weeks ago – but for the Red and Whites, it was only last Saturday.
It was then that it all finally clicked for the Heart and they were good value for their 3-0 triumph over the Jets, but Bleiberg is intent on sending them back down to earth with a thud on Friday.
“Now, more than ever, I can relate to them. They are in the same boat as us, but they’ve been there even longer – last season they played good football for no reward,” he said.
“We as a group believe we are much better than what we are on the table, but at the end of the day there’s no hiding from results.”
“Time will tell if we are good enough, or if we are just big talkers.”
