Inexperience hurts United in defeat

COACH Sean Lane says Gold Coast United’s NPL inexperience came back to bite them in Saturday night’s heartbreaking 3-2 loss to title heavyweights Lions.

Missing regulars Conor Smith, Uryu Nagata, Dean Wernerson and Lochie Reus for the Round 10 trip to Richlands, United appeared on track for a much-needed point when Brandon Reeves headed home an 88th-minute equaliser. But the Lions stole the spoils two minutes later with a Sean Carlos goal, leaving Lane to lament what might have been.

“We get back to two-all with two minutes to go and that’s where I guess some of our inexperience showed, we didn’t see the game out. That game management is absolutely critical,” Lane said.

“People tend to forget that this is a brand new, young group … but you can’t get to 88 minutes and allow a team to score an equaliser or winning goal. The top teams don’t do that.

“So it’s something we’ve got to improve on, something we’ll work on.”

United took a 1-0 lead into halftime on the back of Nick Panetta’s 38th-minute goal, before the Lions struck twice in five minutes early in the second half.

“Everyone put a proper shift in. I couldn’t have asked for any more effort playing against a very, very good side,” Lane said.

“We’ll regroup, go again, take the positives out of this performance and head to Moreton Bay next week knowing we can mix it with any side.”

Saturday’s clash with Moreton Bay kicks off at 7pm.