Gold Coast United striker Hayden Anderson, 16, not content with brief taste of NPL life

HE was plucked from the junior ranks to make his NPL debut on Saturday night, but the Gold Coast’s newest whiz-kid is far from content with his fleeting taste of the big time.

HE was plucked from the junior ranks to make his men’s NPL debut for Gold Coast United on Saturday night.

But 16-year-old striker Hayden Anderson is far from content with his fleeting taste of the big time as the struggling Surfsiders search for positives in a season of NPL gloom.

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With Anderson netting his seventh goal of the Under-16 NPL competition against ladder-leading Brisbane City on Saturday afternoon, men’s coach Sean Lane pulled a late shock by handing the Magic United junior a senior debut off the bench that night.

Gold Coast United young gun Hayden Anderson.

While his 15-minute stint could not prevent the hosts from slipping to a 5-2 loss to City, Anderson is hopeful he can enhance his reputation over the final five rounds.

“I’d love to get another run with the men, I just love playing out there with them. I want more,” Anderson, a member of the Queensland under-16 development squad said.

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“If I keep going the way I’m going I would hope (I will play again). I think I went pretty well, I felt like I fit in pretty well and suited the role I was playing.

“Earlier that day I had my 16s game against the top of the ladder and Sean said I had my best game of the season so far, so he pulled me up to the senior game without any training leading up to it. I’d only met like two (of the players).

“He just said to me ‘go out there and have fun, be you and if you get the ball just be yourself’. I wasn’t that nervous, I was just preparing myself for a faster and more physical game.

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“It was good fun, I loved it.”

Anderson, the son of former Sydney Tigers and Gold Coast Chargers rugby league player Darren Anderson, is a member of Palm Beach Currumbin’s soccer excellence program and spent two years with Palm Beach/Gold Coast City in the NPL before joining United.

Lane, who said Anderson “added some energy” against City, and his troops face three of the competition’s top four over the next three rounds.

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Sitting ninth, they host defending champions Western Pride this Saturday before games against Lions and Moreton Bay United.