Brooks calls for work to fix ‘ same old story’ in defence United told to lift
NORTH Queensland United coach Michael Brooks says they must work harder to eradicate defensive lapses after a loss of concentration cost them dearly in Saturday’s 1- 0 home loss to Gold Coast United.
Nicholas Panetta scored the matchwinner for the visitors in the 56th minute when he made no mistake after he beat the off- side trap to pounce on a long ball.
After keeping a clean sheet in last week’s win over South- West Queensland Thunder, it was a vital moment where NQU slipped back into bad habits.
“We had a 30- second lapse in concentration, the same old story we’ve been dealing with for a lot of our goals,” Brooks said.
“We just switch off times of the game.
“They hit a long ball over the top, we got caught and they just went through on goal.
“( It was) very soft and we’re very disappointed in how it came about, we’ve got to look to fix it.
“They played a lot of long balls in crucial over the top which we dealt with for most of the game, but they eventually punished us.”
NQU will be without in- form winger Matthew Richards for Saturday night’s home derby against Cairns after he was issued a second yellow card after colliding with Gold Coast keeper Luka Zoric late in the match.
Brooks believed it was a questionable decision, but the club will not appeal.
“It all happened pretty quickly. I thought it was a 50- 50 challenge he was entitled to go for,” Brooks said.
“At most I thought it could have been a talking to, but the referee didn’t deem it as that.
“We didn’t have a lot of decisions go our way.
“He’ll be out for next week, but that gives other players like Hamish Cassady or Masi ( Benjamin) a chance to potentially come in.
“They might be able to get a start and if they perform they might cement themselves a position in the starting line up.”
Cairns play the round’s final game against Olympic FC tonight. NPL QUEENSLAND GOLD COAST UNITED 1 ( Nicholas Panetta 56’) bt NORTH QLD UNITED 0 at Brolga Park, Townsville on Saturday night.