A record low attendance - just 4209 fans - watched Hyundai A-League leaders Gold Coast United and Wellington Phoenix battle out a scoreless stalemate at Skilled Park on 2 October, with the visitors deserving of more from a disappointing encounter than just their fifth successive draw, and sixth in nine matches. The first half was decidedly uninspiring, with just five opportunities of note being engineered in the spell. Gold Coast enjoyed the first of them, with Matt Osman playing the ball forward to Jason Culina in the sixth minute. The playmaker cut inside before clipping in a cross towards Shane Smeltz, who met his match in Mark Paston on this occasion. Leo Bertos failed to fully capitalise on a poor Adama Traore clearance three minutes later, firing over from the edge of the penalty area, before Chris Greenacre guided a downward header narrowly past the far post after being picked out by Bertos' twelfth minute corner. Fully fifteen minutes elapsed before either side threatened again in this cat-and-mouse affair, and it was Bertos who was again the telling factor. His twenty-five yard drive from a short free-kick forced Jess Van Strattan to produce a parried save, the goalkeeper recovering to foil Paul Ifill as he closed in on the rebound just shy of the half-hour mark. Just as the teams were preparing to head to the dressing rooms for their half-time cuppa, Gold Coast came close to breaking the deadlock. Culina picked out Osman with a sweeping cross-field ball, allowing the fullback to take on and cut inside Tony Lochhead before unleashing a shot from the edge of the penalty area which was superbly tipped to safety by Paston. Wellington were all over Gold Coast like a rash right from the start of the second half, so much so that one was left to ponder which team was on top of the table. United were insipid, and nearly suffered the setback their efforts deserved around the hour mark. A quick free-kick saw Bertos buccaneering down the left in the 57th minute, and his driven low cross fizzed inches too far in front of Ifill as he slid in on the far post looking to turn the ball home. Seconds later, Gold Coast countered through Traore, who hesitated upon sighting the whites of Paston's eyes, opting to play the ball inside rather than shoot. Culina's attempt was blocked by the

rock-solid Andrew Durante, who, with defensive  side-kick Ben Sigmund, ensured former Wellington striker Smeltz didn't get a sniff of a chance all night long. Back came Bertos, leading Wellington on in pursuit of the lead. Only a timely tackle from behind in the penalty area by Bas Van Den Brink denied him on the hour, but the visitors' key player, who this week signed a three-year contract extension, had the chance for revenge from the resulting corner. Bertos' delivery picked out Daniel, level with the far post six yards out from goal. His header crashed against the crossbar, and was scrambled clear for another corner, which saw Bertos pick out Sigmund, whose header was blocked on the line by Anderson. As it turned out, this brief flurry was the closest we came to seeing the deadlock being broken in this encounter, although Wellington continued to press through Ifill and Bertos, both of whom fired over the bar in the next fifteen minutes. Smeltz just failed to get on the end of a miscued Culina volley twelve minutes from time, but in truth United would have been flattered by a goal in this match - they were awful, and certainly didn't deserve anything from it! Debutant referee Gerard Parsons produced a sound maiden A-League display, yet he was given an armchair ride, to be honest, with United playing for a point at most while their opponents made the majority of the running but lacked the finishing power to bring to an end their frustrating run of drawn fixtures, a key factor in Wellington's lowly standing on the league table. Little wonder crowds are so poor if this is the standard of play produced by the league leaders, and that was with the attendance being bolstered by a hardy bunch of Phoenix faithful who made the trip west and will, like the team they support, look back on this match as being, without question, another case of two points lost. Gold Coast:     Van Strattan; Osman (Brown, 67), Van Den Brink, Rees, Traore; Thwaite, Culina, Robson (booked, 88) (Byrnes, 89), Anderson (Milson, 73); Smeltz, Porter Wellington:     Paston; Muscat, Sigmund, Durante, Lochhead; Bertos (Caceres, 88), Brown, Lia (booked, 88), Daniel (Barbarouses, 80); Ifill, Greenacre Referee:     Gerard Parsons