Gold Coast United have all but been consigned to last place in the A-League as their nearest opponents Adelaide United managed a 2-1 win at Skilled Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Such is Gold Coast United's season that Miron Bleiberg was missing 11 of his regular squad players and was forced to play a large number of Youth League players.
Gold Coast United started brightly but quickly faded as they struggled to step up to the A-League level, interestingly Bleiberg named Maceo Ritgers in his squad, having him play through an ankle injury thanks to injections.
Despite thaty injury he didn't look to be suffering any ill effects and was a key part of Gold Coast United taking the lead in the 7th minute.
Ritgers was found by a good ball from Ben Halloran and then sent in a powerful strike that was redirected by Nigel Boogaard but not enough as he conceded an own goal.
Halloran and Cassio were having an interesting battle on the wing and just before half time Cassio got his revenge.
In the 42nd minute he sent in a wonderful cross for Bruce Djite who atoned from his earlier error when he missed from just two yards, making no mistake this time as he put Adelaide back on level terms.
After the break Gold Coast United took charge again, Zac Anderson nearly breaking the deadlock with a good header in the 51st minute.
Just two minutes later Gold Coast should have been 2-1 up as Halloran linked up with Gol-Gol Mebrahtu who used his pace to get through the Adelaide defense and one-on-one with Eugene Galekovic who made a wonderful save, sending the ball on to the crossbar and somehow Adelaide got the ball away to safety.
The posts continued to hurt Gold Coast United when on the hour mark Dario Vidosic's freekick bending around the wall and coming off the post on the way in to the back of the net.
The teams really cancelled eachother out in the final half hour as they both traded shots but had little accuracy.
The loss leaves Gold Coast United eight points behind Adelaide United at the bottom of the A-League ladder with just seven matches to play they seem destined for last place.
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