Defender Murphy joins City scoring list

DEFENDER Eoghan Murphy scored a rare goal and attacking machine Sam Smith added two more when Gold Coast City continued their hot NPL Queensland form at the weekend.

City beat an improved South West Queensland 3-1 at Clive Berghofer Stadium in Toowoomba to maintain their five-point lead on top of standings.

Murphy hit his first goal of the season to put City 1-0 up after 30 minutes and the score remained the same until Englishman Smith struck in the 65th and 85th minutes to seal the three premiership points.

In rare form, Smith has now scored 17 goals for the season, including eight from his last three games, and leads Matthew Heath (Brisbane Olympic) by four in the race for the golden boot.

There is one statistic in dispute because Smith scored in the fifth round when the goal was wrongly attributed to teammate Jarrod Kyle.

Football Queensland are still looking into the error.

Coach Grae Piddick said City did what they had to do in an at-times scrappy contest in the chills of a Darling Downs winter.

“South West are improved since we last played them and their defensive structure was a lot better,” Piddick said.

“But in saying that we had a number of chances to kill the game before halftime.”

City have an important week, starting with the draw for the FFA Cup, which will be shown live on Fox Sport at 3pm on Wednesday.

Then there is a huge match against second-placed Brisbane Strikers on Saturday.