Rees made his first appearance in a competitive match in over six months with a 20-minute cameo in United's 6-0 friendly win over local Premier League champions Southport Warriors on Thursday night.

It was a short spell but an important milestone in the veteran centre-half's rehabilitation from knee surgery, having spent the rest of the pre-season restricted to the sidelines after sustaining minor cartilage damage.

"It was a good chance to break the cobwebs," Rees said. "It's been a slow process, my recovery, and I've still got some work to do.

"But subconsciously you've got to put a bit of faith in your knee and getting over that is a test in itself.

"Until you get into a game you don't know, it's a different level. But I'm over it now and it was good to have that first hitout."

But when the 31-year-old eventually reaches full fitness, he is no guarantee to walk back into the heart of defence as a host of players continue to stake their claims for a position.

Captain Michael Thwaite is a certainty to take one of the two spots, leaving the other for whoever can win the battle between Rees, Croatian defender Ante Rozic, strapping youngster Zac Anderson, Young Socceroo Dylan McGowan and Eritrean refugee Ambes Yosief.

Rees admits he has a job on his hands to take his old spot back, but said that's nothing new given the calibre of centre-backs that were at the club in the past.

"It's been tough for spots every year, as it should be," he said. "If there's no competition for spots then intensity drops and training and the team will struggle without that.

"Competition is healthy. If you look back at the players we've had over the years, we've had a lot of quality defenders - Dino Djulbic, Steve Pantelidis, Bas van den Brink and Adam Griffiths to name a few.

"It's no different this year compared to others and I'll back myself again. I've just got to work hard and knuckle down."

United's triumph over the Warriors gave them the inaugural Clive Palmer Community Cup, which is hoped to become a local pre-season tradition over the coming years between the A-League club and the team that wins the local competition.

Part of that tradition is that the player from the opposition judged best afield by the United coaching staff will be invited to train with the club for a week.

Despite shipping six goals at the back, former Norwegian under-21 national team 'keeper Andreas Eikum was deservedly named man of the match on Thursday night after a sensational shift in goal and will now get an opportunity which could open up a return to professional football for him.

The 22-year-old was previously contracted to Norwegian second division side Moss FK but tore his ACL and was released, moving to the Gold Coast to study while returning to football with Southport this year - becoming one of the finds of the season in the local Premier League.