Soccer: Knights playing like wooden-spooners

Brisbane Roar 2
NZ Knights 0


Bad turned to worse for the New Zealand Knights when they were beaten by the Brisbane Roar at North Harbour Stadium last night.

With the Newcastle Jets upsetting Adelaide 4-2, the Knights have dropped further behind at the foot of the Hyundai A-League soccer table.

The last time the Knights were at home the stadium was awash. The only problem last night was the setting sun in the players' eyes.

But there could be no excuses for the home team. They were too inaccurate with their passing, lacked teamwork and towards the end were showing signs of internal dissent.

And at the back goalkeeper Danny Milosevic may be a good shot stopper but he lacks some of the other skills required. He was to blame for at least one of the goals with his penchant for not catching the ball.

It looked like another of those painful nights for the 4182 local supporters as early as the first minute. A speculative lob to the edge of the Knights' penalty area saw three defenders playing after-you and Michael Baird nipped in but shot wide.

However, the Queenslanders didn't take much longer to open their account. They won a left-wing corner in the seventh minute and nobody reacted when the ball was cleared to Hyuk-Su Seo 40m out.

He let fly with a dipping drive, which left Milosevic stranded off his line and found the back of the net.

The Brisbane defence was strong in the air but looked vulnerable to a bit of pressure on the ground. In the 14th minute Simon Yeo should have had the equaliser when a misdirected backpass left him with only the goalkeeper to beat and plenty of room to manoeuvre.

But as so often this season, the chance went begging as the Knights' striker dragged the ball wide of the empty net.

He was not alone in his wayward shooting. For much of the rest of the half Brisbane outplayed the home side, setting up chance after chance, but the shots were rarely on target.

Perhaps the worst miss came from Alex Brosque, who fired straight at the goalkeeper when unmolested five metres out. Even defender Chad Gibson got into the act with no greater success.

The Knights began the second half promisingly and Yeo came close after only six minutes when he headed a good cross over the top.

But in the 57th minute Queensland effectively made the game safe with a goal out of nothing. Uruguayan import Osvaldo Carro's speculative shot was only parried by Milosevic and Baird accepted the gift to make it 2-0.

The game became increasingly scrappy, not helped by referee Simon Przydacz who would be a sucker in a poker game as he repeatedly fell for the Queenslanders writhing in agony after even the mildest of tackles.

In other games, leaders Adelaide were beaten 4-2 by the Newcastle Jets and have been supplanted at the top of the table by Melbourne, who thrashed Sydney 5-0.