The draw was marred by skill errors and heavy tackles from both teams, but United coach Miron Bleiberg believes the current health of his home ground does nothing to assist his fluid, passing gameplan.

Instead the pitch, which was painted green to mask its now-infamous shortcomings, lent itself to a more physical encounter that according to Bleiberg played right into the hands of Glory.

"We don't have the luxury of playing on a carpet-style field on which we can play good football - the ball is a bit bouncy and there are a lot of 50-50s," he said.

"Teams come here and see the ground and they know not to play football. If you were the coach of the other team and you walk on this field, and you look at the Gold Coast with a lot of lightweight players like Zenon Caravella, what do you do? 

"Do you think (Perth coach) Ian Ferguson said before the game to his players, 'Let's play triangles and try to beat Gold Coast and nutmeg them' or 'Let's go for a hell of a fight'?"

Ferguson added his name to the growing list of players and coaches who have disapproved of the surface at the Robina stadium.

"It's got to be better, there's no doubt about that. It wasn't A-League standard," said Ferguson. "There was paint on it, no grass - it was all muck.

"We probably never played as well as we have in the past four or five weeks tonight, but it wasn't a surface for silky football."

Despite the poor nature of the field, Bleiberg said it was not the reason why his side could not register the win and instead was full of credit towards the visitors.

"I think Perth were quite good and on a high after a good result last week and they played good enough to not lose while having their fair share of chances. They did every trick in the book to win an away game and they didn't deserve to lose," he said.

But Bleiberg also lamented the fact that United are not receiving the rub of the green that most sides that win silverware seem to be blessed with.

In the dying stages of the game, Gold Coast livewire Tahj Minniecon cut back a ball for striker Bruce Djite that was duly sent into the back of the net, only for the assistant referee to rule that the ball had crossed the byline and was out of play – but video replays were inconclusive.

"I saw the replay and the Tahj cutback wasn't out - so we're a bit on the raw side of the stick, week in, week out. It was as cruel as the penalty (awarded against John Curtis) last week," Bleiberg said.

"I saw the Roar game yesterday and congratulations to them, but they had a through ball and a deflection from the (Adelaide) fullback straight to Solorzano and they won.

"In every country, every place in the world, there are big clubs and small clubs. We are a small club and the decisions always go with the bigger clubs.

"It's not an excuse because we had other chances but we're proud of the clean sheet and that we didn't lose, but when you have aspirations to finish in the top two and you play against a team in the bottom three and you don't beat them at home, it's not something to write home about."