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Having already dented Queensland and Sydney's hopes of finishing second and grabbing the guaranteed extra life in the A-League playoffs, the New Zealand Knights will be looking for more of the same when they play Central Coast in Gosford on Thursday night.
Coach Ricki Herbert, on the bus
trip north from Sydney yesterday morning, reflected on the stunning upset 1-0 win over Sydney FC and looked ahead to the game against the Mariners in which he will be without influential defender John Tambouras.
"We thought we could get something out of the Sydney game," said Herbert. "And so it proved. I thought it was a fantastic result.
"I'm sure most people thought Sydney would get three points for just turning up at Aussie Stadium. It was a great challenge for us. Full credit to the players, they never gave up. Sure, they had chances to score but so did we. It could have finished 3-3."
Herbert paid tribute to disgruntled Barmy Army English cricket supporters who were among the 16,000-strong crowd.
"They were behind Mark Paston's goal in the first half and when we scored they were in full voice. Scoring early certainly took the sting out of the crowd."
Herbert defended the way his players dropped back on defence in the second spell.
"We figured Mark was unlikely to be beaten from 30 or 40 metres so we dropped deeper to make it more difficult for them to get in behind us. It worked well and they became desperate and had to shoot from long range."
Asked at the post-match conference about Paston's saves, Herbert, tongue in cheek, replied: "That's what they [goalkeepers] are there for. Mark is a decent keeper." He quickly added, "I thought he was outstanding."
The home side had 23 attempts on goal compared with 10 for the Knights. Sydney hit the woodwork twice and their goalkeeper was forced to make four saves compared with Paston's eight. But, to underline how much pressure they found themselves under, the home side conceded 14 fouls, the Knights eight.
As well as losing Tambouras, who is off to Romania for six months, Herbert will need fitness checks on Noah Hickey, in some pain after popping his AC shoulder joint late in the game, and Richard Johnston who had not trained all week but got through the game despite concerns with a hamstring niggle.
He will make changes for the game which Central Coast must win to stay alive but will keep those to the minimum.
Deflated Sydney coach Terry Butcher praised the Knights despite the result which capped a bad week for the club after they had been docked three points for a salary cap breach.
"I have to give credit to New Zealand," said Butcher. "They played very well. They caused us problems. We weren't ruthless enough in the right areas. We are hurting very much at the moment. We weren't complacent but know we have to work harder ahead of the Adelaide game."
In Sunday's late game, crowned minor premiers Melbourne Victory put out a second string side but were still good enough to come back from 0-2 at halftime to finish 2-2 away to Perth Glory.
Kristian Sarkies, 20, in his sixth start for Melbourne scored his first Hyundai A-League goals to earn his side a point and almost certainly end any faint hope Perth had of making the top four and playoffs.
Earlier, Queensland bounced back from their loss to the Knights to upset Adelaide 1-0 at Hindmarsh Stadium and Newcastle jumped into the top four with a 1-0 home win over neighbours Central Coast.
