It was far from one of United's better performances of the campaign against a tidy and well-organised AIS side who took their chances when they came along.

The damage was done by half time as the home team hit Gold Coast with a six-minute double salvo that proved to be enough to take all three points.

Mike Mulvey's men fell behind just before the midway point of the first half.

The AIS's Jake Barker-Daish made the most of some sloppy defensive work, pinching possession of the ball before making his way into the box and slipping the ball calmly past Tim Anderson in the United goal.

Gold Coast rallied with Ben Halloran a constant menace and clearly the visitors' best on the day, but they were soon two goals behind and this time Barker-Daish turned provider.

Again it was a defensive slip, Barker-Daish pouncing on a wayward pass before crossing from the right for Jesse Makouranas to slot home from close range.

As the half drew to a close the normally reliable Chris Harold spurned two opportunities to get Gold Coast back into the game.

One chance was sent sailing over the bar and when Zac Anderson played the striker in with a quick free-kick, the out-of-sorts Harold saw his shot saved by AIS ‘keeper Aaron Peterson.

United lost towering centre-back Anderson at the break through illness with Neko Vujevich coming on in his place.

Further substitutions followed as Gold Coast reshuffled to try and impose themselves on the game, but the AIS held firm as they kept possession well, denying United any clear cut opportunities.

"It was a warm day but we should be used to that," said assistant coach Pat Hedges after the game.

"After the way we played last weekend it was disappointing that we weren't at the races today.

"Five or six of the boys were feeling a bit nauseous and we lost Zac Anderson at half time because he was feeling ill, but we're not about excuses and everyone will know that we can do a lot better than we did today.

"The AIS are a very neat team, they use possession well and we just gave them too much of the ball.

"All we can do is take our lessons out of the game and make sure we play the way we know we can next week."

AIS 2 (Barker-Daish 23', Makarounas 29')
Gold Coast United 0

HT: 2-0
Referee: Gary Vandeburgt