KEY POINTS:
A place among exalted A-League company beckons for Ricki Herbert and the New Zealand Knights when they step out on the grass of Gosford's Central Coast Stadium tonight.
With an unprecedented two wins from successive matches, the Knights have the chance to join Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Newcastle as the only teams in the two seasons of the Hyundai A-League to notch three in a row.
The Central Coast Mariners, beaten finalists last season, have yet to achieve that.
The only thing on the Mariners minds will be the three points needed to keep their season alive.
"A draw is no good," said Herbert after the first of two training sessions in Gosford yesterday. "There is great interest in the game over here. We have had local and New Zealand TV channels at training. I think we are being taken seriously, which is a compliment."
Given the wins over Queensland Roar and Sydney, Herbert, not surprisingly, will go with pretty much the same squad and approach.
"I have had a look at tapes of them playing," he said.
"They always start strongly and I expect they will attack us from the outset. This is cup final football for them. They will throw the kitchen sink at us."
In the one (forced) change, Australian under-20 international Steven O'Dor will step into the centre-half berth vacated by John Tambouras who is off to Romania.
The only other change, provided Noah Hickey comes through a fitness test on his injured shoulder, will come on the bench with Jonti Richter likely to replace Michael White.
Herbert said he is bemused by suggestions that the results of the last couple of games were simply waiting to happen given the near full-strength side he has been able to put out.
"These last few weeks have been anything but plain sailing with injuries and other off-field problems to overcome," said Herbert.
"We have still had up to five players needing medical attention and have never been at full strength."
Mariners v Knights
Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford Today 10pm (NZ time) live SS1
Knights: Mark Paston, Darren Bazeley, Che Bunce, Steven O'Dor, Dean Gordon, Leilei Gao, Richard Johnson, Jonas Salley, Noah Hickey, Neil Emblen, Alen Marcina. Substitutes: Nick Crossley, Malik Buari, Scot Gemmill, Jonti Richter.
Mariners: Danny Vukovic, Paul O'Grady, Noel Spencer, Brad Porter, Andre Gumprecht, John Hutchinson, Jamie McMaster, Damien Brown, Stewart Petrie, Vuko Tomasevic, Matt Osman, Alex Wilkinson, Adam Kwasnik, Mile Jedinak, Matt Simon, Matthew Trott (one to be omitted).
