Archie Thompson. Photo / Getty Images
MELBOURNE - An injury to in-form Melbourne Victory striker Robbie Kruse has offset the return of Archie Thompson, adding to coach Ernie Merrick's frustration at the inconsistency of his A-League soccer attack.
The Victory were unable to penetrate a defensive-minded Gold Coast last night, as the visitors left Etihad Stadium
with a valuable 1-0 win, courtesy of a Rodrigo Vargas own goal.
Melbourne's big positive was the return of Thompson, the league's all-time top goal-scorer, playing the second half in his first appearance since injuring his knee in last season's grand final.
But Kruse, who had scored in Victory's previous four matches, injured his thigh late in the game.
Even with Kruse likely to miss next Sunday's away clash with Perth, and Brazilian striker Ricardinho still out with a knee strain, Merrick said he was unlikely to start Thompson so soon in his comeback.
But he said Melbourne's attacking form needed to improve to climb from their current fifth spot.
"You can make all the excuses in the world, but if you don't string together consecutive performances and you don't score goals, you're not going to climb the ladder," Merrick said.
"It's not like we're conceding goals left, right and centre ... It all comes down to scoring goals and that's the real frustration here."
Thompson was pleased to have survived 45 minutes. "There was always the thought of maybe doing [the knee] again, but I felt great after two or three tackles. The confidence started coming back and then I forgot about the knee," he said.
"So I don't think the knee for me now is an issue, it's just about me now getting fitter and getting some game time."
Gold Coast coach Miron Bleiberg, whose team has conceded just seven goals in 12 matches, said he was proud of the win, particularly given that attacking players Bruce Djite, James Brown and Tahj Minniecon were out injured.
"We did our homework and it worked. Someone could say it worked because it's luck, it's an own goal," Bleiberg said.
"I say we could have scored [ourselves], Jason [Culina] missed by [not] much, and we had some chances, and I think with the team that we had, it made it an even greater achievement."
- AAP
