Roar were rocked by the club's pre-match announcement that Farina would be 'suspended indefinitely from all coaching duties' after being charged with drink driving on Saturday morning.

It banned him from having any match-day influence, throwing the club's game-day preparations into turmoil.

But despite the absence of the former Socceroos boss -  followed by the side's second straight loss - the Roar squad has refused to point the finger at Farina and instead given him their full support.

"Frank is not just a great boss, but also a great guy," said defender Josh McCloughan, stand-in captain for the absent Craig Moore.

"What he's done with the club over the past few years has been tremendous. He has 150 percent support from the entire playing group. He's always put his neck out for the boys, and he has our complete support during this time."

Roar claimed Farina's absence barely had an impact on the playing group.

"Indications were it didn't affect us," assistant coach Rado Vidosic said. "Our attitude and behaviour was great prior to the match. We had one of our best ever warm-ups."

Gold Coast United coach and former Roar boss Miron Bleiberg refused to comment on the Farina situation.

But he praised his south-east Queensland rivals spirited showing in the absence of quality players Moore (Socceroos duty), Danny Tiatto, Charlie Miller (suspended), and Henrique, Michael Zullo and Massimo Murdocca (injured).

"Under the circumstances it was a brave performance from Roar today. With all the hoo-hah surrounding them it was a big effort," Bleiberg said.

"They were also so undermanned and still performed well. With so many quality players to come back they've got a lot to look forward to this season."

On the victory, Bleiberg labeled it a turning point for the one-time title favourites after a five match winless run.

"It was an important result for us," he said. "It ended our slump and now we're back in second spot. We're heading back in the right direction. Look out Perth next weekend."

The win also maintains United's early bragging rights over Roar, having won their maiden derby 3-1 in the opening round. Joel Porter orchestrated two goals that night, and on Sunday he played match winner again.

He scored the game's only goal in the 31st minute, which came courtesy of a misdirected clearing header from Roar defender Bob Malcolm that fell fortuitously for an unmarked Porter at back post.

Despite undermanned, the home side battled gamely and had several chances to take something from the contest, with Sergio Van Dijk had the best of them.

The Dutch striker looked to have leveled just before the break but his tap in was controversially disallowed after teammate Mitch Nichols was ruled to have fouled the rival keeper in the contested play which led to the ball dropping for Van Dijk. Nichols was called for raising his arm when contesting the high ball.