Fourth-placed United moved four points clear of fifth-placed Melbourne thanks to the win at Etihad, but Culina was not getting carried away.

"We're not even thinking about that at the moment," Culina told Fox Sports after the game.

"We're just taking it one game at a time, we've got Sydney on Friday night and that's our next challenge."

Culina hailed his side's resolute performance away to Melbourne, after losing 4-0 at Etihad last November.

"Last time we came here we got flogged," he said. "We all said that we're going to change it this time, we're going to be solid, a bit more consistent and the boys had a great game tonight. I'm very proud of them."

Culina added he was delighted with the performance of several of Gold Coast's younger players including Ben Halloran, in the absence of Bruce Djite, James Brown, Tahj Minniecon and John Curtis.

"We were missing a couple of players this week and the young boys who came in did brilliantly," he said.

"That's the future of Gold Coast United, the young boys, and they showed tonight they can play with the best."

Melbourne Victory's star striker Archie Thompson made his comeback as a half-time substitute after an eight-month knee injury layoff and he admitted it was disappointing to return in a losing side.

"It's disappointing tonight," he said. "It's good to get a few kilometres in the legs but obviously disappointed that I didn't get back into a winning team."

He added: "We want to get points at home. But it's a long season, we've just got to bounce back next week and to turn it around in Perth would be fantastic."

Thompson added, despite making his long-awaited return, he was not yet sure if he would make the trip to Perth for next weekend's away game against Glory.

"We'll just have to wait and see," he said. "Obviously there's training next week and we'll see how it pulls up after tonight. I haven't had that game situation during training.

"Hopefully it pulls up okay and then it's up to Ernie (Merrick) if he wants to take me away."