REDLANDS United are back in the winner’s circle as they end an unlucky five match losing run with an emphatic 5-1 away win against Gold Coast United.
A good number of Redlands fans made the trip down to Robina for the National Premier League clash between Gold Coast United and Redlands United. The first half started as a tight affair with possession favouring the home side as Redlands held firm in defence and repelled Gold Coast attacks.
Just after the half hour mark Redlands were provided with a great opportunity on goal when they were fouled outside the box. Alex Warrilow stepped up and made no mistake, expertly slotting the free kick and putting the Red Devils one up in a tight contest.
Just before the half time break Gold Coast’s new mid-week signing Fraser Hills found himself one on one with Redlands goalkeeper Matt Tubbs, who made an outstanding save to his right, ensuring the Red Devils went into the break with a 1–0 lead.
The Red Devils came out in the second half looking to take control of the game. Things started terribly for the home side. Just as the half began the Red Devils pressured the Gold Coast defence into conceding an own goal, extending the Red Devils lead. Almost immediately from the restart Hills scored on debut for Gold Coast getting them back in the match. Redlands continued to press forward and were rewarded when a sloppy defensive error from Gold Coast found an unmarked Jake Sherwood who made no mistake firing the ball into the back of the net, extending the Red Devils lead to 3-1.
With 15 minutes to go Shuto Kuboyama sealed the result for the Redlands when he found himself unmarked at the back post and made no mistake to score his 12th goal of the season and Redlands fourth. Five minutes later Kuboyama got his 13th goal for the season, his second for the night and the Red Devils fifth. Four second half goals sealed the competition points.
“The boys were excellent tonight,” Redlands coach Nick Dibbs said. “We made a tactical change, we shut down them down and then went on with it.
“Everything we have been working on at training worked a treat.
It’s been coming and finally clicked.
After the game their coach said to me that the first 25 minutes was the best they have played all season but they just couldn’t break us down. That was a real compliment to how we went about things tonight.” Dibbs made special mention of the team’s three 16-year-olds, Rob Kramer, who played the full 90 minutes, Jackson Hart-Phillips who played the first 60 minutes and Angus Broderick who came off the bench.
