Dino Djulbic thumped home a late winner for Gold Coast United in today's elimination final victory over Melbourne Victory. Djulbic struck in second-half stoppage time from Peter Perchtold's corner.

"I said to Peter 'just put it on the penalty spot' and nodded to him, he nodded back and hit a beautiful ball which we'd been missing all day and I hit it in the top corner," Djulbic told Fox Sports.

The defender was full of praise for Victory No1 Mike Petkovic.

"Petka was brilliant today. He was probably man of the match for the Victory. We knew we had to do something special and it was," he said.

Victory striker Archie Thompson rapped: "When you look at the state of the pitch too, both teams have to play on it. I don't know who makes the decisions to play on these sorts of things, but it was disappointing."