Francis Awaritefe this week delivered a serve to Gold Coast United midfielder Jason Culina live on The World Game on SBS. Awaritefe prefaced a question to Culina with the accusation that his Gold Coast side had an overly negative approach to the game that was consequently damaging for the club and the A League. Culina, stung by the comment, replied by suggesting - his tongue firmly planted in his cheek - that Gold Coast would be more potent if it had the former Socceroo striker in its side.

For the record, Gold Coast has scored 12 goals in its 12 games this season (the joint second-lowest in the competition) but sit fourth on the ladder with a couple of games in hand on those around them and looking a safe bet to make the finals.

The incident highlights a contentious debate within the football community about which is more important; the results a team achieves or how a team goes about achieving results?

Awaritefe's view, shared by other football purists, is that the performance should precede the scoreline with the side most adept at beautifying the beautiful game taking home the spoils.

I am bored with this attitude. If you want a ball-game without contact that is designed to let flair-players show off, watch futsal, or basketball. Football is a contest. Playing fast pass-and-move football accurately will often be successful in such contests. When it is not, it is unfair to blame the opposition for executing an opposing strategy.

Don't get me wrong, as a neutral I love watching the Arsenals and Barcelonas mesmerise sides with their tiki-taka and I would love the sides I support to play similarly but I appreciate that football is a multi-dimensional sport that allows different talents to be showcased. A well-timed tackle is as vital to a football match as a Cruyff turn. A towering defensive header as important as the dangerous cross that it clears. It is about the balance between defending and attacking and appreciating the skill and beauty in both.

Take Gold Coast. In their debut season they played with panache, finishing the season as third-highest goalscorers. Since then, they have lost leading scorer Shane Smeltz and suffered injuries to other key forwards. Coach Miron Bleiberg has consequently had to alter the balance between defence and attack to ensure his side remains competitive. Bleiberg has succeeded by taking each opponent on merit, tailoring a different line-up each fixture during this A League season. It might not be pretty but it is effective. In arguably the highest standard A League to date, Bleiberg's ability to get results should be praised, not chastised.

Recent footballing history also suggests a side's attractiveness is no guarantee of its effectiveness. At World Cup level, not since 1970 has the trophy been lifted by a national side playing the most attractive football in the tournament. At club level, the Champions League has been won most often in recent years by sides doing just enough to win games rather than using the format as an expression of their greatness (Barcelona's victories in 2009 and 2006 being notable exceptions). And Arsenal, the football purist's wet-dream, has failed to lift any silverware since 2005.

The 2009-10 Champions League victory for Internazionale could not have highlighted the divide between results and performance more starkly. Arch pragmatist Jose Mourinho even instructed his side to surrender possession in their semi-final against free scoring Barcelona. Explaining after the match, "we didn't want the ball because when Barcelona press and win the ball back, we lose our position - I never want to lose position on the pitch so I didn't want us to have the ball, we gave it away...I told my players that we could let the ball help us win and that we had to be compact, closing spaces."

How many Inter fans would have been disappointed at ending a 45 year wait to lift the biggest club trophy in the game by playing ‘anti-football'? Considerably less than the number of Barca fans gutted at their team's inability to keep a clean sheet at the San Siro.

I would hope that coaches throughout the world coach with the intention of producing beautiful football as a means to win football matches. If, for whatever reason, be it personnel, superior opposition or simply wanting to do all they can to secure a victory, I have no problem with them doing it any bloody way they like.