With the clock ticking down Daniel Mullen clattered into substitute Joel Porter on the edge of the box, then Jason Culina smashed the resulting free-kick towards goal with the ball appearing to strike the hand of Adelaide's Sergio van Dijk.

But referee Chris Beath waved away Gold Coast's howls for a spot-kick and with it went United's chance of closing the gap on the league leaders.

Bleiberg was pragmatic about the incident and the match, despite his frustration at not taking all three points on home turf.

"We wanted to win at home and close the gap on Adelaide, but overall I'm not unhappy. We showed that we are as good as they are and on the positive side we played against the team that is top of the ladder and we didn't lose or concede a goal," Bleiberg said.

"The clean sheet shows that we are resilient and defend well when we have to. Adelaide weren't too adventurous but when you lead the league by as many points as they do, you don't have to go away and attack for ninety minutes. For them this point away from home is a very good one.

"Lady Luck followed them a little with the penalty claim. I didn't see it clearly at the time so maybe the referee didn't see it either and he doesn't have the benefit of six or seven replays. If the referee wasn't sure he can't give a penalty and that's fair enough."