Broadbeach United surging towards Gold coast Premier League top two after Surfers win

AN easing of the injury woes that stymied Broadbeach United’s early-season progress has reignited the Dolphins of old as they surge towards the Gold Coast Premier League’s top two.

AN easing of the injury woes that stymied Broadbeach United’s early-season progress has reignited the Dolphins of old as they surge towards the Gold Coast Premier League’s top two.

After struggling for troops, cohesion and consistency in the early stages of the season, the perennial finalists have started to hit their straps as the playing group nears full strength.

On Saturday, they closed the gap on second-placed Surfers Paradise to five points with a hard-fought 4-3 win at Lex Bell Oval.

The Dolphins’ third-straight victory came after leading 3-1 at halftime, with a third Shaun Robinson goal sealing the three points after Surfers fought back to level at 3-3 following strikes from Teddy Watson, Calvin McCallion and Brandon Gomez.

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Tomoki Asakawa scored the other goal for Broadbeach, who were the beneficiaries of two penalties.

United co-coach Damien Barker said the return of reinforcements had helped his side keep their title dream alive.

Broadbeach United’s Shaun Robinson (left) scored a hat-trick yesterday. Picture: Mike Batterham

“The lads have really been putting in (at training) and also we’re getting players back from injury as well. Every coach has had their problem with injured players and we don’t use it as an excuse but it’s really had its toll on our squad,” said Barker, who watched the Dolphins fall to Burleigh Heads and Nerang 5-1 before launching their winning streak.

“Now we’re getting players back, the intensity at training is superb. The lads are really putting in and wanting to be out there.

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“Now we’re getting to a stage where they’re actually fighting for a shirt rather than just being given a shirt. That’s what was happening in games and the performances were simply not good enough when we got thrashed by Burleigh (and) thrashed by Nerang.

“So we will hopefully we can take this into the next games. We don’t look where the teams are in the league, all we want to do is concentrate on ourselves and put the performance in.”

Surfers entered Saturday’s Round 13 fixture on the back of four-straight victories that had put them within reach of ladder leaders Burleigh, but Barker said Broadbeach had devised a blueprint for success after prevailing 3-2 when the sides met last month.

“We came out of the traps well and that was the plan – we wanted to go at them. We were really confident at the start of the game, the warm up felt good and we did exactly what we planned to do,” he said.

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At Pizzey Park on Saturday, a Matt Hilton hat-trick dented Coomera’s top-four hopes as Burleigh won 3-0, while Mudgeeraba disposed of last-placed Tweed United 4-0 in their bottom-of-the-table battle at Sid Bigg Park.

Palm Beach host Nerang at 4pm today.