If we thought the season could not get any worse for the Knights before this match against the League's joint second placed team we were very wrong. The team from Sydney went 1-0 early in the first half with the first of his goals in the match from Fernando Rech.
In the 17th minute young star player Billy Natsioulas got himself sent off for a challenge on Parramatta Player Andre Gumprecht that could be called reckless to say the least, this put the Knights on the back foot straight away after going a goal down so early. Now down to ten men and in a team that already included five teenagers in the Knights starting line up this was going to be an uphill struggle.
The referee had no other alternative but to show the red card, but Knight's coach Ian Dobson did not agree with the referee's decision at all. "I thought it was an extremely rough decision for the referee to make." Dobson said. He added, "I thought he was far to quick to issue the Red Card, " he said.
At the start of the second half Melbourne Knights came out looking the more adventurous of the two sides with again Captain Andrew Marth leading by example. It was his header to substitute Serkan Oksuz in the 51st minute that brought the Melbourne team back on level terms.
The goalkeeper for Melbourne Knights Vilson Knezevic pulled of some top class saves as Parramatta started to come back into the game well after they let the lead slip.
Then finally, in the 77th minute Parramatta scored a second goal, which probably was the simplest of goals that Fernando Rech would have ever have scored in his career.
Towards the end of the game the Knights understandably were beginning to run out of legs and the extra man of the Parramatta Power was beginning to tell. Just to rub salt into the wound the team from Sydney added a third goal to finish of the Melbourne Knights. It came in the 92nd minute, a corner from the left-hand side of the field was floated over and Fernando Rech finished off.
Parramatta Power now stand-alone for 24 hours anyway, second in the League. Assistant coach for the Power Manfred Schaefer said after the game "The red card definitely changed the game for both sides especially coming as early as it did. The referee was very strict, but that is the way things go .... but as far as we were concerned the result was a good turnaround from last week." He added, "things are starting to fall back into place. We had control of the first half more than the second did half. Our away record is not that good and this is only the second game we have won interstate this season".