Djite destroys hapless Jets

A hat-trick to Bruce Djite helped Gold Coast United on their way to a 5-1 thumping of the Newcastle Jets at a fan filled Skilled Park on Saturday night.

Both coaches will be thinking what a difference a few players make with the return of Shane Smeltz coinciding with Gold Coast rediscovering their ability to score goals, while for Branko Culina, the loss of Francis Jeffers and Ljubo Milicevic has seen the Jets’ goals dry up and concede eight in their last four matches.

While Djite scored the goals, Smeltz was dangerous all night, scoring one himself and was integral in Gold Coast’s attack, providing some lovely weighted passes that linked the midfield and strikers in the final third.

The match was more like a training run for Gold Coast, playing against a depleted Jets side that included youth team players James Virgili and Sam Gallaway in the starting line-up, the injury toll really showing in their lacklustre performance.

Adama Traore stated Gold Coast’s intent early on when he opened the scoring on their first attacking raid, sending a cracking half volley soaring into the left hand side of the net after nine minutes.

The goal came after good work from Golgol Mebrahtu on the right hand flank when he cheekily nut-megged Gallaway to put in a cross that was only half cleared before Bass van den Brink worked the ball into Traore’s path.

The Jets responded momentarily by forcing Glen Moss to make a string of saves one after another, with strong efforts from Labinot Haliti and Virgili.

It wasn’t long before momentum swung back the way of Gold Coast as they built pressure with a number of consecutive corners, swinging the ball in toward a frail looking Jets’ defence.

The Jets’ defence was made to pay soon after when Djite doubled the lead in the 36th minute with a weak header sneaking its way past Ben Kennedy at the far post.

There were question marks over Kennedy’s role in the scoring of the second goal, replays showing that he could have come out and claimed the ball comfortably before it got close to Djite.

It was much the same in the second half as Gold Coast continued to heap misery on the Jets.

Smeltz got in on the action, scoring in the 60th minute with a clinical finish after a good individual run and cut back pass from van den Brink – and he could have doubled his tally had he not missed a penalty moments later.

If a crowd of 14,783 wasn’t already enough, then the surprises were truly up when substitute, Zhang Shuo, scored a consolation goal for the Jets in the 75th minute.

Djite went on to complete his hat-trick, scoring two goals in the final 10 minutes of play after capitalising on some woeful defending from a Jets side in a shambles.

Branko Culina has all the work to do to make the finals with Gold Coast running out deserved winners by a country mile.