Soccer: No more given-away goals, promises Knights coach

New Zealand Knights coach John Adshead is determined there will be no more gifted goals now the A-League has started in earnest.

"Queensland are a good side. But we have to defend better and be more disciplined than we were in our pre-season home games," said Adshead ahead of his side's season opener in Brisbane tomorrow.

"In those two games we gifted Queensland four of their five goals and the one Central Coast scored.

"We have to put a stop to that from day one. We have to put a bit of steel into this game and go from there."

In leaving out talented attacking Chinese midfielder Xiaobin Zhang, Adshead has sprung a minor surprise in naming his team for their first Hyundai A-League match at Suncorp Stadium.

"If we are looking to be effective up front we might be better served in playing Xiaobin and Zenon Caravella off the bench," he said. "They can change things on both sides of the park."

Adshead is expecting a large crowd and a none-too-friendly atmosphere at Suncorp.

"They have already sold 15,000 tickets and are expecting 20,000 at the game. We are expecting a warm welcome into this league for sure."

Officials are confident they can exceed the 18,000 who watched the Brisbane Broncos opening match in the old NSW [now NRL] competition in 1988.

Two of the younger Knights players, Jeremy Brockie and Cole Tinkler, along with apprentices Sam Jasper and Kris Bright have been named in the NZ Football Championship Invitation XI to play the Solomon Islands at Trusts Stadium tomorrow.

* THE SQUAD

At Brisbane Roar, tomorrow 5pm (NZ time - live on Sky Sport 2), Suncorp Stadium)

Danny Milosevic, Darren Bazeley, Neil Emblen, Danny Hay, John Tambouras, Ronnie Bull, Jeremy Christie, Ben Collett, Josh Maguire, Josh Rose, Sean Devine. Substitutes: Glen Moss, Zenon Caravella, Xiaobin Zhang, Steve Fitzsimmons.