United, who were already without key striker Bruce Djite due to injury, lost Porter due to a hamstring problem in the warm-up, yet scored three goals to defeat the Mariners in an entertaining contest between two sides pushing for the top two.

Bleiberg told Fox Sports after the game: "Joel Porter, our main striker, withdrew five minutes before kick-off and Glen Moss had almost a broken ankle, we have to determine it, so he played the last 25 minutes with a broken ankle. I think it was an enormous achievement."

The Gold Coast boss admitted his side rode their luck in the first-half as the Mariners dominated play only to go in at the break all square.

"We were lucky a bit in the first-half that we didn't concede," he said. "We were lucky a bit that we equalised at the end of the first-half.

"But we knew they were only human and they'd run out of petrol in the second-half.

"The second-half I think we controlled the game, we scored two goals, we could've scored more and unlucky for us we conceded one goal which probably was a push on Dino (Djulbic).

"It was a story of two halves."

Bleiberg also had something to say in response to criticism about his side's style this season.

"For all those ones who said Gold Coast is not entertainment, I think 3-2 is part of a good celebration," he said. "There's nothing wrong with it."

Mariners coach Graham Arnold rued his side's failure to take their chances in the opening half.

"We had more than enough chances to win two games in the first-half," he said. "I knew that we'd fatigue in the second half because of our schedule.

"You've got to give credit to Gold Coast, they came back and they kept fighting and they got the result in the end."

Arnold added he expected skipper Alex Wilkinson to bounce back after his error let United substitute Andrew Barisic in for the winner.

"I won't say anything to Alex because very rarely does he make mistakes," he said. "He's been great this year and he'll just get on with it now."

Arnold added he was excited about the prospect of taking part in his first F3 derby when the Mariners host Newcastle Jets next Wednesday.

"It should be great," he said. "We had a good crowd today and Newcastle had 12,000 so lets hope for a good crowd on Wednesday night."