Soccer: Staunch defence not enough for Knights

The Knights believe they could have beaten the Jets last Sunday. Picture / Greg Bowker

Victory is the only result that will satisfy All White defender Che Bunce tomorrow when the Knights continue their early run of home games in soccer's A-League.

The Auckland-based club host Adelaide United, the Pre-Season Cup winners and last year's minor premiers, after having made an encouraging start to the new campaign last weekend.

Producing a solid defensive effort, the Knights came away from North Harbour Stadium last Sunday with a hard-fought 0-0 draw with Newcastle.

But rather than being pleased with the point gained, Bunce alluded to two points dropped.

He said the work put in to make the Knights hard to break down was paying off, but they could have done more at home against a team that was "beatable".

"You have to score goals to win games and we need to win games at home."

The Knights have found the back of the net just three times in seven matches since the start of the pre-season.

New manager Paul Nevin had said his initial priority was to a build a strong defensive foundation.

This week, he began to turn his sights to the other end of the pitch, giving his players plenty of shooting practice at training.

Adelaide were also held scoreless last weekend, going down 2-0 away to Melbourne, who finished fourth in the pre-season competition.

Bunce said the result wasn't really a surprise as he believed the league would be tight from top to bottom.

"Anyone can beat anyone," he said. "I don't think there's going to be much difference between the eight teams come the end of the season. It's anyone on the day."

Bunce, 30, is in his first season in the A-League, but was a member of the first Football Kingz squad in the old National Soccer League.

He has spent the past couple of seasons with Waikato in the New Zealand Football Championship, being drafted in by Auckland City in the latter's successful Oceania club championship campaign in May.

The Knights and Adelaide will kick off at 12.30pm, with the Chatham Cup final between Auckland club Eastern Suburbs and Wellington's Western Suburbs to follow on the same ground at 3pm.

Meanwhile, the Knights yesterday announced the appointment of fitness trainer and goalkeeping coach Kevin O'Leary to the job of assistant manager.

O'Leary was on the staff of English clubs Walsall and Wolverhampton Wanderers before returning to New Zealand in 2003, taking up a development role with New Zealand Soccer.

- NZPA