Soccer: Smeltz piles pressure on golden boot rivals

Shane Smeltz leads the A-League’s golden boot race by six goals. Photo / Getty Images

Shane Smeltz remains firmly on course for a second successive A-League golden boot.

With just seven rounds of the regular season to play, Smeltz, who scored his 15th of the season in helping Gold Coast United to beat Perth Glory 2-0 at home, stretched his lead over North Queensland Fury's Robbie Fowler and Brisbane's Sergio van Dijk to a handy six goals.

That win was timely for Gold Coast, who had fallen off the pace but are now back into the top three. Charlie Miller made certain of the points for the Coast with his 76th-minute strike after Smeltz had put them ahead inside five minutes at Skilled Park.

In contrast to the sparse crowd of 4310 in Robina, 27,344 turned up at Etihad Stadium to watch heavyweights Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC slug it out.

In the end, in a match dominated by the home side, the points were shared with neither team finding the net.

Newcastle Jets kept themselves in the top four with their fourth win in a row, beating North Queensland Fury 3-2 in front of 7026 fans at EnergyAustralia Stadium.

Given a helping hand when the Fury gave up an own goal after 25 minutes, Jin-Hyung Song doubled that advantage 13 minutes later. The visitors got one back through Dyron Daal a minute before the break. His second, 16 minutes into the second half, levelled the scores.

Veteran Sasho Petrovski found the winner for the home side seven minutes from time.

A crowd of 9070 turned up at Hindmarsh Stadium to watch Adelaide United share the points in a 1-1 draw with the Wellington Phoenix.

After a scoreless first half, Alemao put the home side in front in the 58th minute. Substitute Adrian Caceres needed just a minute to unlock the United defence and bag the equaliser.

Central Coast Mariners slumped to a third straight loss in going down 3-2 to visiting Brisbane Roar in another very even encounter.

The Roar went to the break 2-1 ahead after Tommy Oar and van Dijk had scored in the opening 22 minutes. Nicky Travis closed the gap after 34 minutes and Dylan MacAllister grabbed a 77th-minute equaliser.

With time running out and the points destined to be shared, Matt McKay snatched a last-minute winner for Brisbane.

Sydney FC are at home to Central Coast tomorrow night at the start of round 20.

There are four scheduled weekend matches but the Phoenix do not play until Thursday week when they again travel to play Central Coast.