Soccer: Knights throw down gauntlet in tough joust with Newcastle

Knights veteran Noah Hickey (front) beats Jets midfielder Adam D'Apuzzo to the ball in yesterday's clash. Picture / Kenny Rodger

Knights 1 Newcastle 1

The New Zealand Knights kicked off their second season with a battling draw against the Newcastle Jets in their Pre-Season Cup clash at North Harbour Stadium yesterday.

Although there was a decent dollop of winter rust in much they did, there was also enough promise to suggest that given time and some shrewd signings, the Knights might give the faithful something a step or two up from their dreadful Hyundai A-League debut season.

Fielding a team with only Sean Devine, Noah Hickey and Frank Van Eijs from last season's squad, the Knights took time to settle.

Unlike their opponents, who had the benefit of three decent warm-up matches, the Knights, who had had scheduled pre-season play in Napier and Fiji cancelled, went in cold.

It showed.

They needed, and took, time to settle against a Newcastle side who also showed little early.

There was much turnover ball as both teams struggled to find any early rhythm. Poor delivery into the front-runners made it difficult for the strikers as both teams began positively by pushing players on to attack.

Nick Carle had the best of the early chances when he got forward but fired his attempt straight at new Knights goalkeeper Michael Turnbull.

Imposing Knights midfielder Malik Buari, later named player of the day, worked his way into the game.

After providing a good ball to Jonti Richter which came to nothing Buari, a minute later, had a snap shot from 25 metres which crashed on to the upright and was scrambled clear by the Jets defence.

The deadlock, in a game which was going nowhere, was broken in the 40th minute. Richter gathered a Turnbull goalkick, turned inside his marker and fired his shot low to Jets goalkeeper Ben Kennedy's right.

Carle had an early chance to equalise in the second half but his attempt bounced off Turnbull and eventually produced nothing more than a goalkick.

Still smarting from a crazy decision by referee Neil Fox in which he almost handed the visitors a runaway goal, Newcastle did equalise in the 58th minute when Mark Bridge scored a goal out of nothing, getting on the end of a deep freekick and curling his shot away from Turnbull into the Knights goal.

Vaughan Coveny put a volley over the top for the visitors and Hickey fired his attempt straight at Kennedy in the only other threatening action as the clock wound down.

Knights' new coach Paul Nevin was happy enough with the point.

"We did a lot of the things we looked to do," he said. "We are very happy with the outcome.

"This is the start. There are five [pre-season] games to go. I'm sure we will get better."

Although Buari showed he will impose himself from midfield, there is a desperate need to get goal-scoring strength in front of goal if the Knights are to be competitive.

As a starting point, they probably rated about six or seven out of 10.

The challenge is to improve on that ... and quickly. Next week they are away to Queensland Roar who held Sydney FC to 2-1 on the Gold Coast.

In other opening-round action, All Whites midfielder Leo Bertos scored for Perth Glory as they went down 2-1 away to Central Coast Mariners and Adelaide United picked up valuable away points in beating Melbourne Victory 1-0.