A-League wrap: Gold Coast win five-goal thriller

Gold Coast has leapfrogged Central Coast into third place in the A-League after an amazing come-from-behind 3-2 victory against the Mariners on Sunday.

Substitute Andrew Barisic scored the winner in the 73rd minute after the normally reliable Central Coast captain Alex Wilkinson made a bad mistake.

The goal capped an astonishing period of play which saw three goals in four minutes. After scores were locked at 1-1 at half-time Steve Pantelidis put the visitors in front in the 69th minute.

Two minutes later Adam Kwasnik levelled after a fumble from Gold Coast goalkeeper Glen Moss.

Even after Barisic scored, chances fell at both ends in a pulsating second half.

The home team dominated much of the first half and were finally rewarded when Matt Simon netted his fourth goal of the season in the 42nd minute. Oliver Bozanic won possession before releasing Joshua Rose who fired a perfectly timed low cross into the path of Simon.

Central Coast looked certain to go to the break 1-0 up but against the run of play Dino Djulbic fired home from close range in the 45th minute after the Mariners failed to clear a corner.

The second half started with Gold Coast’s Tahj Minniecon missing an easy chance after beating the offside trap. He was one-on-one with Mariners goalkeeper Mathew Ryan but failed to hit the target.

The game came to life midway through the second half. Pantelidis scored his first A-League goal when he capitalised on some good lead up play from Adama Traore in the 69th minute. The home crowd did have to wait long for a reply with Kwasnik scoring after Moss fumbled a long ball.

In an amazing period of play Gold Coast went ahead again in the 73rd minute when Barisic capitalised on a mistake from Wilkinson to score the winner. Wilkinson failed to clear before Barisic won possession and scored what the eventual winner.

Meanwhile, two goals in five minutes late in the second half enabled Sydney FC to move off the bottom of the table in a 2-0 win over Perth Glory.

A lacklustre contest appeared headed towards a scoreless draw until goals to Shannon Cole (75th minute) and Alex Brosque (80m) turned the game Sydney’s way.

It was probably more than the Sky Blues deserved after dishing up ordinary fare for the first 75 minutes before a club-record low crowd of 6654.

Cole lit up a drab affair with a well-taken goal 15 minutes from time.

Brosque, in his 100th A-League match, created the chance by switching play to his right with a clever pass to free Cole, who kept his cool to fire past Glory keeper Tando Velaphi.

Five minutes later Brosque went from provider to scorer.

Hirofumi Moriyasu’s perfect pass set the striker free and he easily rounded Velaphi before scoring.

Glory’s late fade-out worsened with the late sending off of Brent Griffiths, who was the last man in the line when he brought down Brosque.