Soccer: Yeoman for all seasons

Last week two teams welcomed their final player to the fold for the upcoming Australian A-League. Both are strikers, both prolific goalscorers from their respective leagues and both have played in England. But only one had a press release about him last week because he had missed his connecting flight from Dubai, meaning the gathered hordes of Australian media would have to cool their heels for another day.

Dwight Yorke swooned into Sydney last week with the razzmatazz of a Hollywood star, while Simon Yeo trudged into Auckland Airport last week as just another tired and unknown traveller.

Next week the pair will vie for the headlines as Yeo's Knights take on Yorke's Sydney FC for their first game of the A-League pre-season cup - although such is the attention heaped on Yorke, anything he does will create headlines anyway.

It's the simple reality of the new season considering Yorke, a key member of Manchester United's treble-winning side in 1999, is the biggest name to grace the revamped Australian league.

"Someone like Dwight Yorke in the league motivates me," Yeo said in his Lancashire accent, before hinting that he would love to win the golden boot award given out to the league's top goalscorer. "It's like David and Goliath. He's a big-name player and if you look at what he did at Manchester United he was outstanding. Since then he's not really been prolific but he will still be a threat."

If Yeo can recapture the type of form he did at League Two side Lincoln City, where the 31-year-old scored 23 goals in 47 games last season, propelling them to the playoff final, then Yeo could be a threat to opposition teams himself.

Although he stands at only 170cm and weighs in at 74kg, he's a 'fox in the box' type player who can squirm between big centre backs and beat them for pace.

A life as a professional footballer hardly looked on the cards, however, considering Yeo was more accustomed to delivering into the box - the mailbox, that is, as a postman - before he joined the army. After six years of service, during which time he played for the highly-rated Combined Services team that toured throughout Europe, he played non-league for four years with Hyde United before he was picked up by Lincoln at the ripe old age of 28.

After taking his side to two League Two playoff finals in three seasons, four firm offers were made last month by the likes of Huddersfield, Peterborough, Shrewsbury and Lincoln - until one from the Knights arrived.

"I probably would have gone to Huddersfield but the opportunity to join the Knights was too good to pass up," Yeo explained. "It wasn't as much money as I was on in the UK but it's the lifestyle that attracted."

Perhaps ironically, however, Yeo wanted to return home as soon as he arrived considering the weather was miserable and it suddenly dawned on him that he was in a strange land and knew only fellow Knight Sean Devine.

Yeo will feel at home at the Knights, considering English accents are littered throughout the squad, and his partnership with Devine could become a key factor in how John Adshead's side perform this season.

Already the press and bookies have written the Knights off but that's fine with Yeo.

"Everyone expects us to get whipped so I'm looking forward to spanking a few Aussie teams. I fancy being underdogs," he said with an obvious bite typical of northerners in the UK. After all, he is the David to Dwight Yorke's Goliath.

Saturday, July 23, 10pm - Sydney FC vs NZ Knights, Aussie Stadium.

Saturday, July 30, 7pm - NZ Knights vs Qld Roar, North Harbour Stadium.

Saturday, August 6, 7pm - NZ Knights vs Central Coast Mariners, North Harbour Stadium.

August 13-14 - Semifinals.

August 20 - Final.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY