Gold Coast United vs Melbourne Victory

A 20th minute strike by Robbie Kruse allowed Victory to then concentrate on defence for a 1-0 win in front of a paltry 3624 fans - the lowest crowd in at least four years of the A-League.

Corralled to the eastern side of the ground because the club had capped the crowd numbers to 5000 to save on money for transport and logistical costs, the sparse group of supporters had little to cheer about.

Victory coach Ernie Merrick admitted employing very defensive tactics once the vital away goal lead was established.

"It's never an easy game, particularly up here, and we were just happy to control the game," Merrick said.

"We ground it out which was important. It was a clean sheet."

Victory's goal was superbly set up by star import Carlos Hernandez who hit a well weighted pass to Kruse who was running with the flight of the ball and into the penalty area.

Kruse had Gold Coast goalkeeper Glen Moss bearing down on him yet clipped the ball to his right and then followed up with a shot from an acute angle some 10m wide of goal which found the net.

Gold Coast could have easily replied a minute later but for a bungle in the penalty area.

The home side's best chance of levelling the scores came in the 28th minute when United forward Adam Traore had an ambitious attempt from hard up against the byline which deflected and ballooned to present teammate Golgol Mebrahtu with a gift header from a couple of metres out.

But he nudged it wide much to the dismay of his teammates and to the frustrations of United’s fans.

From that moment the game, as a spectacle, went into decline.

The home side wasted opportunities partially because of a lack of quality passes and also because they were minus key forward Joel Porter and having seemingly lost Shane Smeltz to European football.

United coach Miron Bleiberg said it struggled without Porter and looked in disarray at times in attack.

"We were like a chook with no head at the front," Bleiberg said.

"We missed Porter more than we missed Smeltz.

"We had chances after conceding the goal ... they killed the game and we didn't do enough."