Soccer: Barren Knights grab draw

Knights captain Darren Bazeley turns Labinot Haliti inside out. Picture / Greg Bowker

Knights 0 Newcastle 0

It wasn't pretty but the New Zealand Knights could take some satisfaction from their draw with the Newcastle Jets at North Harbour Stadium yesterday.

Last season Newcastle beat the Knights in all three of their A-League games as the New Zealand team were rooted to the bottom of the table.

This time they start with a hard-earned point from a game that neither side deserved to win. And the enthusiastic crowd of around 6000 went away content that their team should at least be competitive this season.

Without their injured Portuguese striker Dani Rodrigues, the Knights were always going to struggle for goals. They opted for containment, leaving Sean Devine battling on his own up front with occasional dashes by Jonti Richter.

In the 10th minute Richter almost gave the home side a dream start. He broke free on the right, closed on goal and hit the crossbar with goalkeeper Ben Kennedy beaten. Sadly that was about as close as the Knights came to scoring.

Their defensive work, with Che Bunce dominant in the air, frustrated the visitors who were most threatening with the pace of Mark Bridge and Jobe Wheelhouse down the right.

Newcastle came tantalisingly close to scoring in the 33rd minute when Joel Griffiths found himself one-on-one with goalkeeper Danny Milosevic, but steered his shot just wide. The striker also blew another chance just before halftime when he opted to pass poorly when he had a clear sight of goal.

Neither goalkeeper had been busy in the first 45 minutes and the trend continued for much of the second half. Frustration led to some wild tackles and referee Simon Przydacz handed out yellow cards to Newcastle's Andrew Durante, Griffiths and Shane Webb and the Knights' Jonas Salley and Gregory Duruz.

In the 70th minute Darren Bazeley delivered a pinpoint cross to Devine but the striker couldn't get his foot to the ball as the defence shut him down. Malik Buari came close and Michael White, who replaced Richter, made a couple of promising runs but nobody could break the deadlock.

Knights' coach Paul Nevin was happy his team created more chances than Newcastle but was disappointed that they weren't turned into goals.

"It's a point," he said, "but we know we've got to get three points at home if we're to achieve what I want to achieve."

Earlier, Melbourne Victory beat Adelaide 2-0 and Queensland beat Perth 3-0.