Soccer: Sydney match crucial for Knights to stop the rot

Knights coach Paul Nevin has some serious head-scratching to do before tonight's clash with defending champions Sydney FC at North Harbour Stadium.

Although it is still early in the A-League championship, this round-five game has "crucial" written all over it for the Knights.

After an encouraging start of a draw and win, the Knights have tumbled to back-to-back defeats, with a combined goal difference of 0-8. They sit sixth on the eight-team ladder, two spots below Sydney.

There's a long way to go in the league, but the Knights desperately need to stop the mini-rot, not only in terms of public perspective, but to ensure they don't spin into freefall, as happened last year.

Nevin doubtless does not like references to the inaugural A-League. Fair enough, he had nothing to do with the Knights last season.

The difficulty is in how they are viewed from the outside. After the last two rounds, those not familiar with the club could be excused for wondering if history is about to repeat over the next few months.

That's Nevin's problem: persuading the doubters that there are good things happening at the club. Defensively, things looked reasonable until the 3-0 Melbourne loss on September 10. But getting goals has been an issue since the season began.

Defender Greg Duruz has recovered well from his groin injury and may be a late inclusion, while attackers Noah Hickey and Dani Rodrigues, who made their return from injury layoffs in last week's 5-0 tonking from the Queensland Roar, should be the better for that run.

Sydney are without defender Alvin Ceccoli (who gave manager Terry Butcher a verbal send-off on the sideline last weekend and has been left behind) and attacker Steve Corica (sent off for abusing the referee in the same game).

Former Knight Jeremy Brockie is in Sydney's squad and tonight might give his old club the first glimpse of what they've missed out on with his departure.