Soccer: Resolve hardens at Knights

The New Zealand Knights are expecting to cop a backlash when they run on to North Harbour Stadium tonight but captain Danny Hay is in no hurry to back off.

Competition favourites Sydney FC are hurting after being held 1-1 at home by Melbourne Victory in last weekend's opening round of the Hyundai A-League.

"They are going to be fired up, for sure," Hay said. "I'm sure their coach [World Cup winner Pierre Littbarski] has been getting into them."

Dwight Yorke's enforced absence - on World Cup duty for Trinidad and Tobago - is a disappointment for Hay, although he concedes it might make their task a trifle easier.

"Yorke would have brought out the Auckland public and it would have been the chance to test ourselves against the best," he said.

"But it's not to be, so we just have to get on with it."

The disappointment of losing 0-2 to Queensland Roar in their opener at Suncorp Stadium has only hardened the resolve in the Knights camp.

"We were punished for a couple of mistakes, but that's what this league is about," Hay said after training yesterday.

"For my part, I made a good tackle with my left foot but then pushed the ball to one of their players and he hit a cracking goal.

"Their other goal came from jumping on a back pass. That can happen at any time.

"But we have to put that behind us and show we can be competitive.

"In general I feel we defended well. I'm comfortable playing four at the back and I'm sure the more we play together the better we will become."

In the only changes from last week, coach John Adshead has left out Jeremy Christie and the injured Xiaobin Zhang. In come Noah Hickey and Simon Yeo, but neither is likely to start.

Yeo, who has been troubled by an abdominal/groin strain, said he was close to 80 to 90 per cent fit and keen to see some action.

"I'm moving freely. It depends on the gaffer [Adshead] how much time I get."

Once fully fit, Yeo is expected to lead the attack this season.

"I saw enough in the first game to be encouraged," he said. "If that was a basic performance, I know we can step up."

Despite a losing start, Adshead said he was not nervous or anxious about tonight's game.

"We have to entertain and hopefully the public will turn out to see what we can do.

"We know they are without Yorke and [Saso] Petrovski but they still have great players like [Steve] Corica and [David] Zdrilic.

Tonight's game, refereed by Peter O'Leary, starts at 8pm.