CRACKLE, NO POP
AN UNDERDONE Cairns FC were exposed by a fit, young Gold Coast United side and were given a lesson in ruthlessness in the NPL Queensland season opener.
More than 1300 fans piled into Barlow Park to see the home side go down 3-1 on Saturday night, thanks to missed chances and a lack of understanding between several new faces.
Cairns striker Joshua Taylor was one of them and he should have put his side in front inside the first five minutes when he spurned a oneon-one chance against United goalkeeper Zac Speedy.
The visitors took their oneon-one chance in the 10th minute when Rees Duncan beat Danny Knight, before allowing Cairns to dominate the rest of the half.
Taylor had more opportunities and finally took one in the 38th minute when he received a brilliant through ball in the box from Shaun Owens, turned and found the back of the net to make it all square going into the break.
A halftime talk clearly sunk in for United, who scored a headed goal through defender Samuel Johnson in the 48th minute, before overseas player Uryu Nagata sealed the game when he slotted a third for his side in the 87th minute.
Cairns coach Danny Graystone said he was still happy with the performance despite being made to pay for a few “minor mistakes”.
“I think it’s probably a result because we’re a little bit underdone. We needed more time to work on set pieces but it is what it is. We should be dealing with these situations and we’ll make sure this doesn’t happen in future,” he said.
“It was a good performance, but we’ve got a lot to learn from it.
“We should have been 1-0 in the first couple of minutes. We had a one-on-one, we missed, they had a one-on-one, they scored. That’s football at this level, the NPL.
“They pretty much had three chances and three goals. That’s how ruthless teams are.
“We’ve got to improve on that, we’ve got to become a bit more ruthless in front of goal, but also I think we had opportunities to create easy chances but dwelled on the ball too much. But we’ll keep working on that and we’ll improve.”
Graystone said it was a valuable experience for several local debutants and lauded 17year-old Musashi Nakagawa for a near-90-minute defensive effort “beyond his years”.
Gold Coast United coach Sean Lane was beaming after a rare win in the Far North and particularly noted the efforts of his gloveman.
“I think our goalkeeper Zac Speedy made a couple of fantastic saves, like some worldclass saves, and I don’t use that term lightly and then I thought we were solid at the back,” he said.
Switching off with poor ball retention was not part of the game plan, but Lane
“They did everything that I asked of them. I really couldn’t be happier,” he said.
THE ATMOSPHERE WAS FANTASTIC. TO HAVE SO MANY AT THE GAME AND SO MANY BEHIND US EVEN THOUGH WE’D COME OFF THE PITCH AND LOST WAS A REAL CREDIT TO THE REGION DANNY GRAYSTONE