Knox City v South Springvale

Knox City 0 South Springvale 0 (Half-time 0-0)

Most of the chances in this game came in the first half, however excellent goalkeeping at both ends kept the scoresheet blank. The second half was an arm wrestle in which neither side created many clear cut chances. South Springvale was reduced to ten men in the 87th minute after Karaga picked up his second yellow card but it was too late for Knox City to capitalise on a numerical superiority.

The visitors relied heavily on Diniotis as their avenue to goal and he created a number of chances in the second part of the first half. Knox’s opportunities came from set pieces when the big men from the back, Edgar and Veljovic came up to pose a threat. Other than that the home side lacked that spark of invention today and their front men had a day to forget.

Knox had by far the better of the opening exchanges. Nick Veljovic was prominent during this period as he surged forward on a couple of occasions but was just off target. Then his right wing free kick was met by his brother Peter with a firm header only to see Sango make a brilliant reflex one handed save. The keeper also turned away a goal bound shot from Saunders.

Hinget was also prominent during this spell, but the visitors got on top around the halfway mark of the period and Diniotis terrorised the Knox defence for the next 15 minutes or so. His strength left defenders in his wake on a number of occasions and Jorgensen came to the rescue with a couple of great saves, none better than in the 40th minute to deny a perfectly placed Diniotis free kick which was bound for the top corner.

The memorable moments of the second half were limited as neither side could gain any ascendancy. Neither keeper was forced to make a real save and defences generally were well on top.

Suat got clear of the Springvale defence a couple of times but his control let him down and he never got a decent shot away.

After Karaga’s dismissal, Knox pushed forward and went close from Edgar and Nick Veljovic’s headers from set pieces but they both missed by the barest of margins.

Both teams have to front up again on Monday in the Round One postpones matches.

Knox City: M. Jorgensen, G. Dos Santos, A. Edgar,  P. Veljovic, J. Hingert, H. Swami (G. Moon – 60th), N. Giannopoulos A. Saunders, N. Veljovic, L. Grubic (M. Hoogendyk – 71st), K.Suat. Sub not used – E. Becirovic, K. McEvoy.

South Springvale: T. Sango, T. Georgoulis, A. Savva, K. Tetsos, A. Gouzioulis, B. Karaga (Red Card – 87th), R. Swingler, G. Pearce, C. Antoniou (S. Catherine – 87th), A. AKrivopoulos (D. Vasilou – 67th – T. Mazzeo – 87th), I. Diniotis.