The United boss joked that there would be plenty of people smiling with the club having suffered its first defeat.

Bleiberg dismissed claims that the Gold Coast would now be under less pressure because they  had the 'monkey off its back' by registering a loss.

"The pressure about not losing? Between us Jason (Culina) and myself we knew one day we would lose ... we didn't know whether it would be 2012, 2015, but we knew one day we would lose," joked the Gold Coast coach.

"But the pressure is increased now because we play Sydney at home and we want to win it even more than we wanted to win it before because we lost today."

The two sides meet at Skilled Park on Saturday.