Gold Coast captain Michael Thwaite bagged an injury-time equaliser as another Melbourne Victory meltdown resulted in a 1-1 draw in Wednesday night’s A-League clash at Aurora Stadium.
Thwaite slammed his equaliser into the net and erupted into wild celebrations as his side avoided a third straight loss and consigned the Victory to more soul-searching after a match they had dominated slipped away.
Harry Kewell had put the Melbourne side in front with a free-kick set-piece chance in the 66th minute after proving a constant menace to United’s defence.
But the chances he created went begging, with Archie Thompson the main offender, and the Victory now find themselves needing to beat crosstown rivals Melbourne Heart in Saturday’s derby to keep their finals chances alive.
Kewell, though, might have had a double after he was denied in controversial circumstances in the 32nd minute when his header from a throw-in was batted into play by Gold Coast keeper Chris O’Connor, who appeared to do so from behind the goal-line.
Desperately needing maximum points ahead of the clash with the Heart in just three days’ time, the Victory leave Aurora Stadium in Launceston with a second confidence-sapping fadeout in a week.
It might have been worse but for keeper Ante Covic with the Socceroos representative producing some stunning reflex saves after some early defensive wobbles.
The Coast took a step towards avoiding the wooden spoon but back up their visit to Tasmania with the tough trip to Perth for a clash with the Glory on Monday.
After a 0-0 halftime scoreline, the Victory exploded out of the blocks after the break, seemingly creating chances at will but were unable to convert.
Two yellow cards in four minutes to desperate United defenders, though, resulted in Kewell nailing his second free-kick set-piece chance in the 66th minute and the Victory led 1-0.
With the majority of the 5268 crowd willing them on, they held off some late raids from United, including a superb free kick from Golgol Mebrathu which produced another superb Covic save, but couldn’t hold off the one that counted.