It’s raining goals for United striker

WHEN it rains, it pours for Gold Coast United striker Meaghan McElligott.

With her NPL Women’s season already punctuated by a six-goal haul against South West Queensland last month, the 22-year-old repeated the dose in United’s 7-1 thrashing of Western Pride in Ipswich on Saturday night.

After arriving at United this season following stints with Souths United (2016), Washington Spirit (2017) and the Brisbane Roar training squad, McElligott now has 18 goals in eight games to sit top of the NPLW goalscoring tally.

“I’m stoked to play in front of such an awesome bunch of talented girls who make my job easy,” she said.

“We’re still building as a team and have made a commitment recently to really focus on some week-to-week match-day goals.”

The victory over the Pride, which also featured a goal from Georgia Elliston, snapped a three-game winless run for United and kept them within touch of the top four ahead of their Round 10 battle with high-flying Souths United at Runcorn on Sunday.

In the men’s NPL, Gold Coast’s two-game winning streak came to an end on Saturday with a 3-0 loss to reigning champions Western Pride.

The dismissal of midfielder Lochie Reus for a handball in the box within three minutes signalled the beginning of a tough night for the visitors, who fought bravely to trail 1-0 at halftime.

“After going down to 10 men early it was always going to make it a long night for the players,” United coach Sean Lane said.