Coomera strikes as Bulldogs fall asleep after dark

BURLEIGH Heads coach Colin Phelan expected fellow frontrunners Gold Coast Knights and Broadbeach to be partying after his side slipped to a 3-3 draw against Coomera.

Phelan cut a disappointed figure after the dramatic, topsy-turvy Gold Coast Premier League match at Viney Park on Saturday night, having wanted to put pressure on their rivals by taking all three points.

“They will be laughing,” he said. “They will be delighted. They will be having a party.

“To be honest, we never played well all day.”

The Bulldogs led 2-1 before a lights outage brought the game to a halt. Coomera took advantage of the interruption to knock in two quick-fire goals upon resumption.

“We did lose our momentum but at the end of the day that’s only an excuse,” Phelan said. “We have got to be better than that. They have gone bang, bang.

“That’s not the lights’ fault, that’s our fault.”

Coomera coach Steve McDonald agreed his side had benefited from the delay.

“To be honest I don’t think we came out of the sheds in the second half so after the lights went out there seemed to be a bit more about us,” he said. “It probably hurt Burleigh because they were definitely in the ascendancy in the 15 minutes before the lights went out.”

McDonald added that his side must pick up points from their upcoming run of games against top sides to ensure they don’t undo all their hard work during the first half of the season.