this will be brief.
Final score Knights 0 South Melbourne 1. One of the most lacklustre matches I have seen for a long, long time.
The only goal came in the first half at the 13 minute mark when, incredibly, the Knights keeper, Joe Didulica of all people, handled the ball from a back pass resulting in an indirect penalty kick.
The Knights formed a wall whilst the South team made a very unconvincing attempt at being indecisive about who was going to take the kick.
Everyone knew it would be Lozanovski, including the Knights, yet he drilled the ball thru' the wall and into the net as if the wall wasn't there.
South decided that would do it for the day and proceeded to play a largely defensive game, except that the Knights weren't able to provide any offense. The Knights tried hard but just didn't have the players to push thru'. A few shots came close but nothing to get too exited about. I was surprised South didn't go a little harder as they could have won 3-0. The extra goals would have been really handy later on in the season in case they need to peg back Perth's lead.
Still it was cold, windy and the rain was only just holding off, and there was none of the big game atmosphere present at the South v Carlton game at BJS last week.
The Youth league game afterwards was probably better value. I only saw the first 10 minutes, whilst the Studs Up editorial team was buttonholing Paul Wade, and South scored 2 goals to zip. Looks like the Knights Youth policy still needs working on. I think Vid Horvat knows that too as each time I looked at him in the binoculars he was looking very glum. Where did the papers get that picture of him with the toothy smile ?
Crowd, maybe 5,000. Not great for a derby in my opinion, and a quiet crowd too.
Man of Match, give it to Loza just for being able to convert the chances handed to him on a platter.