Soccer: Knights lose, but Adshead remains satisfied

The New Zealand Knights kicked off their pre-season games with a loss described by coach John Adshead as satisfying in the context of their preparation so far towards the Hyundai A-League Australian soccer league.

The Knights lost 2-0 to fellow Hyundai A-League franchise Central Coast Mariners in Surfers Paradise last night but it was the performance that was important to Adshead.

"Before the match we talked about our objectives and clearly given we have been together for just two weeks as a squad I was concerned not about the result but performance, and it is fair to say we are satisfied with the performance of the team in trying circumstances," he said.

The Knights found themselves 2-0 down inside 20 minutes but showed character and composure to not only contain Central Coast for the remainder of the match coming close to scoring in the second half.

"It was more than encouraging after going behind early on to a 20-metre pile-driver and then an own goal," Adshead said.

"The lads showed great character to regroup through until halftime when we had a chat about things and from there tightened things up considerably while being more than unlucky not to score ourselves through Sean Devine and John Tambouras in particular.

Adshead stressed that performance would outweigh the scoreline at this stage of a team's development.

"So far all of our work has been fitness based with very little done on tactics or formation.

"Central Coast, for their part, have been together for months, played 10 competitive games and been to Hong Kong for a sevens tournament. And yet nothing they did today surprised us.

- NZPA