Gold Coast United fuming as administrative failure costs Shane Smeltz his NPL debut

A week and a half’s effort to clear Shane Smeltz for his National Premier League debut was wasted on Tuesday night when football bureaucrats missed the deadline for his round one debut.

Gold Coast United coach Kristian Rees fumed on the sidelines as his side suffered a 1-0 NPL season-opening loss while the A-League’s former leading goalscorer watched on, powerless to help, because of an administrative failure.

A week and a half’s effort from the club to clear New Zealand international Shane Smeltz for his National Premier League debut was wasted on Tuesday night when Football Queensland and Football Federation Australia were unable to process his paperwork in time for round one.

Shane Smeltz has signed with Gold Coast United for the 2020 NPL Queensland season.

United created opportunities to steal back a draw or better after conceding in the first half to Olympic but couldn’t find the back of the net, leaving officials to wonder what might have been if the 38-year-old Smeltz was injected off the bench.

“Hopefully we’ll get him for our next game,” Rees said.

“We spent a week and a half trying to get organised, constantly making calls and emails and we couldn’t get him cleared which is frustrating.

“Clearance has come from his old club in Indonesia so we’re just waiting on FFA and Football Queensland because we really want to get that done.

“I would have thought it would have been a priority to get someone like him on the pitch for the first game of the NPL season.

“It’s not the worst thing but if we had Shane coming on, even off the bench with 15-20 minutes left you’d cause havoc and he could score the winner.

29/01/17 - A League: Adelaide United v Wellington Phoenix at Cooper's Stadium. Wellington's Thomas Doyle celebrates with teammate Shane Smeltz after scoring a goal. Picture: Tom Huntley

“Substitutions make a difference and you need an impact; if he was cleared I’m sure he would have done damage.”

Rees said the result was disappointing but there were still positives to take from his side’s opening game.

“We created some chances and pretty much ran them into the ground but a slight lapse in the first half we conceded and we were unable to get one back,” he said.

“In possession we were good, they were vulnerable on counter but we just couldn’t capitalise.

“It was a tight game, a little unfortunate but these things happen and we’ll move on.”

A string of young guns stood up but rookie goalkeeper Aidan Mumford was the pick of the bunch with an outstanding debut in goal.