KEY POINTS:
NZ Knights 2 Perth Glory 0
The New Zealand Knights' late-season A-League rally continued with an emphatic win over Perth Glory at North Harbour Stadium last night.
The deserved victory continued an amazing run under stand-in coach Ricki Herbert.
In their last seven games - the third
of three rounds in the Hyundai A-League - the Knights fashioned an excellent record. They won three, drew three and lost only to runaway winners Melbourne Victory. No other team lost only once in that period.
The Knights took 12 of a possible 21 points from those games. Only Queensland Roar - four wins, a draw and two losses (one 1-3 to the Knights) for 13 points - fared better.
Last night's game epitomised the Knights' new-found belief.
Making the most of it against a team that showed little real interest, the Knights made the play almost at will.
Perth's ponderous centre-back pairing of David Tarka and Ante Kovacevic struggled to match the pace of the new Knights strike pairing of Neil Emblen and Malik Buari. Mark Lee, at left back, never got close to Noah Hickey, who toiled relentlessly on the Knights' right.
From the outset there was the feeling the visitors would have rather been some place else. They could not even manage a full complement of four on the bench.
Emblen quickly had the crowd on his side when he went one-on-one with Perth goalkeeper Tom Tomich. Turning away, he found Leilei Gao in support, but his shot was straight at Tomich.
The Knights were keen to attack at any opportunity.
Gao slipped the ball deftly into the Glory goal for what appeared to be a 17th-minute opening goal only to have it ruled out by a poor offside call by linesman Steve Budai.
Buari then went close twice but was just wide after tormenting the leaden-footed Perth defence.
The inevitable breakthrough came in the 32nd minute.
The Knights enjoyed almost total control in midfield, where Gao and Richard Johnson were outstanding, and it was no surprise their enterprise was rewarded.
Hickey raced deep and pulled the ball back to Buari, whose shot was blocked by Tomich. But the keeper could only watch as the ball spilled to Emblen and the striker buried the simple chance.
Seven minutes later the home side celebrated a second.
A Gao corner to the far post was headed back across goal by Che Bunce to Emblen, who dropped his header neatly for Buari to pounce and score.
While the Perth defence struggled, their attack found a Knights defence who gave them nothing.
In what might prove to be their last game for the club, fullbacks Darren Bazeley and Dean Gordon showed all their skills, both in defending and linking well with wide midfielders Hickey and Gao.
The central defensive pairing of Bunce and impressive youngster Steven O'Dor, in his first home appearance, were again rock solid. Goalkeeper Mark Paston was largely unemployed.
The second half fell away by comparison but the Knights were never under any threat.
Referee Kevin Docherty decided he should at least share in the action. After finding no need to book any player in the first half, he flashed five yellow cards in the second 45 minutes in a game that was never spiteful.
If this is to be the Knights' farewell - and a meeting with Football Federation Australia's top brass here tomorrow will go a long way to deciding that - it was a befitting finale to a season that began with real hope, quickly faded into obscurity and ended with a flourish and a real feeling of what might have been.
