Soccer: Adshead pleased with a rare draw

SYDNEY - New Zealand Knights coach John Adshead was happy to take the point for a draw after a dogged display against the Queensland Roar in Brisbane last night.

With some inspired defence and a measure of good luck, the Knights hung on to leave Suncorp Stadium with a 1-1 draw, breaking a sequence of 11 straight losses.

"We have got to be pleased," Adshead said afterwards. "We have played a lot better than that in other games and come away with nothing."

The Knights were again outplayed territorially, but showed plenty of character to strike back after Royce Brownlie had given the Roar a 1-0 lead with a diving header from an Alex Brosque cross in the 44th minute.

A minute before halftime, the Knights were awarded a free kick in the Roar half. Ben Collett kicked it to Simon Yeo, whose header glanced over the defence and into the unprotected left side of the net.

"It was lovely work from Simon Yeo after good delivery from Ben. It was one of the set piece moves we have been working on, with a player moving across the flight of the ball," Adshead told NZPA.

In the second half, the Knights had a couple of promising moves, mostly featuring young Jeremy Brockie, but couldn't capitalise on them. But they spent the majority of the half in defence, as the Roar tried desperately to go one up. It was brilliant goalkeeping by Danny Milosevic, aided by backup from Darren Bazeley and John Tambouras, that thwarted their efforts.

Tambouras had to be stretchered off late in the game with an injury to his left ankle. He went down after being hit late and hard by Brosque, but played on before succumbing in another heavy challenge.

"We're hoping it's not too serious, there's certainly nothing broken," said Adshead.

They also lost Frank van Eijs at halftime. Adshead said he was having breathing problems on what was a muggy night in Brisbane.

The match had a few other ugly moments and matters looked like getting out of hand in the final minute when Zenon Caravella brought down Queensland striker Tyler Simpson with a foot-trip, but officials calmed things down.

Adshead said the point from the draw would be a boost to the players who had worked hard on their game.

"We are going into the Christmas break with an extra point and it will be a confidence booster."

The Knights have 11 days off before going back into camp to prepare for the next match, against Sydney, on December 30.

They will be hoping to have skipper Danny Hay back for that match. Hay has missed the last two matches after Adshead gave him time off. The veteran defender had met the club to discuss some unexplained issues he had at the Knights.

Adshead said last night he hoped the matter would be resolved and that Hay would be at training on December 12.

- NZPA