North Caulfield v Knox City

North Caulfield  1 Knox City 2 (Half-time 0-1)

For 65 minutes of this game Knox City dominated. They were 2-0 up, had hit the woodwork three times and were cruising to a much needed victory to take them back to second place on the Division Two ladder after a run of four games without a win.

Then North Caulfield started to take some risks, got a goal back and put Knox under extreme pressure for the last 15 minutes, but it was to no avail.

Knox attacked from the outset and the post came to the home side’s rescue twice in the first ten minutes. The first time saw a clearance canon off a defender and then the post and then Grubic met a cross from Saunders with a first time strike that had goal written all over it until the post intervened again.

Hinget and Suat were getting acres of space down the right wing and a little more accuracy would have put North Caulfield under even more pressure.

Suat received a fine through ball from Peter Veljovic and partially rounded the keeper before he recovered to thwart the move.

Nick Veljovic was inches over from a 25 metre free kick as the Knox pressure mounted.

North Caulfield’s attacks were limited in the first half but Jorgensen was called upon to make an early save and Perazic also made a timely clearance mid way through the half as the home side relied on catching Knox on the break.

With the half almost at a close, Saunders broke the deadlock when a right wing corner fell invitingly for the striker to drive home an unstoppable shot from 10 metres out.

Knox appeared to have made the game safe in the 52nd minute. Grubic chased a back pass and the keeper into a sliced clearance. Grubic recovered the ball near the bye-line and sent over an inch perfect cross for Nick Veljovic to powerfully head home.

Substitute Moon hit the crossbar with a thunderous shot from the edge of the area and at this stage it looked how far for Knox. However, with Wallace prompting in midfield and Rabinowitz making forays from sweeper the home side started to create some opportunities. Braude reduced the deficit when he went past two defenders and crossed the ball, which was only partially cleared and he followed up to score from an acute angle in the 77th minute.

Knox was now being pushed back continually but were able to see out time for a win that was much closer than it appeared 20 minutes beforehand.

Knox City Reserves also moved into second place when they won the opener 1-0, courtesy of a Sivic penalty.

Knox City: M. Jorgensen, G. Dos Santos, P. Veljovic, D. Perazic, A. Edgar (H. Swami – 85th), N. Giannopoulos, J. Hingert, L. Grubic (G. Moon – 71st), A. Saunders, N. Veljovic, K.Suat. Subs not used – A. Christou, K. McEvoy.