Gold Coast boss Miron Bleiberg has said it's time to forgive and forget with the announcement that no-nonsense referee Matthew Breeze will officiate Gold Coast United's first Hyundai A-league final against Newcastle on Saturday night.
Breeze's controversial decision to award Wellington a penalty two weeks ago is still fresh in United's mind, however Bleiberg was quick to begin repairs on the fractured relationship at the club's final training on Friday morning.
"It doesn't matter who referees the game. Look, Matthew Breeze is a good referee in the A-league and we play in the A-league, so we are all in the same family and we all have to learn how to work together," a reconciliatory Bleiberg said.
"For the sake of both parties I hope this will be the case - he will do the job to his best of his ability and our players will concentrate on Newcastle and will do the job to the best of their ability,"
"And like in every family sometimes they have a feud, but then at the next function everyone one is dancing on the dance floor and I'm hoping that will be the case."
Fined a hefty $4,000 by FFA regarding comments he made to the media about Breeze's Round 26 performance, this year's Hyundai A-league Golden Boot winner Shane Smeltz was expectedly quiet on the appointment but assured the media he thought the experienced referee would perform well in the knock-out final.
"Look I mean he's the referee and he's a very good ref. I'm sure he'll do a good job, he's got his job to do just like we do, so there's nothing really to say about that to be honest." the Kiwi international said.
The goals haven't flowed as much as Smeltz would have liked in the past month with the All-White unable to find the back of the net for a staggering six games, but that doesn't seem to bother the talisman who feels there will be no added pressure to score on Saturday night.
"Not at all, to be honest that the season's finished and there's finals football it's eased if anything. The season's out of the way and now we've got to focus on this weekend, and it comes down to everyone performing," he said.
"It wouldn't matter if Kristian Rees gets another goal or anyone else scores, like I said, as long as we go through to the next stage then we're all going to be happy."
Bleiberg was also un-fazed by Smeltz's recent dry-spell and believes his 19-goal marksman will turn things around against the Jets.
"If you follow Shane's career you know it's like a share in the stock market, it has its ups and downs, or like the weather with the calm after the storm. I believe that he is raring and ready to go," Bleiberg said.
"I'm not concerned (with his form) it happened to him when he was at Wellington last year, he scored a lot then he had a dry-spell then he scored again."
"It's happened to him this year and it's also happened to more famous strikers than him. That's the life of a striker."