The clash of the top- and bottom-placed sides in the penultimate round of the Hyundai A-League at North Harbour Stadium on January 28 saw the cellar-dwelling New Zealand Knights conclude their home programme in the competition by holding premiership winners Adelaide United to a 1-1 draw. A lively opening could have seen Adelaide take the lead inside the first ten seconds, as Robert Cornthwaite thundered downfield and headed Richie Alagich's pinpoint ball,  launched from the half-way line, over the crossbar. It set the tone for the half, with Lucas Pantelis and Louis Brain both going close inside the first ten minutes, a feat matched Jeremy Brockie on two occasions at the other end of the park in the same timeframe, his rasping third minute screamer being turned round the post by Robert Bajic, who dived in vain as the dreadlocked winger's tenth minute grass-cutter careered narrowly past his right-hand post. Once Adelaide settled down, they began to cause the Knights' defence all sorts of bother, and their pressure was rewarded in the 21st minute, thanks to a horrendous defensive blunder by Cole Tinkler, one of five potential All Whites in the Knights' squad, but one of two - Jeremy Christie was the other - who failed to perform to the standards demanded by the A-League, never mind international football, in this match. Tinkler gifted possession to Pantelis, who scooted down the left before whipping in a delightfully weighted cross beyond target man Fernando Rech. Behind him, Brain was arriving with a well-timed run, and he guided his header into the top far corner of the net to open the scoring with a well-taken strike. Having got one goal, the visitors weren't slow in doing their level best to at least double their advantage. They poured forward over the course of the next ten minutes, creating four clear-cut chances in that time. But the Knights managed to survive. Brain picked out Rech with a 24th minute corner, which the Brazilian headed goalwards from eight yards out. Glen Moss blocked his effort, and the home team scrambled the ball to temporary safety. For within two minutes, Tinkler cleared an Alagich drive off the line, seconds before Pantelis thundered a shot a yard wide, Rech having flicked Brain's long throw-in into the midfielder's path. The Knights' defence was often at sixes and sevens during this phase of play, and they certainly were on the half-hour mark, as Alagich's patience almost paid dividends. Holding onto possession while he waited for a team-mate to make the right-timed run into the area of greatest danger to the Knights, he dwelt on the ball until Pantelis finally obliged him. Over came an inch-perfect cross for the midfielder, who headed the ball inside for Rech. He touched it into the path of Brain, who somehow directed his header wide of the mark from under the shadows of the crossbar. It was a real let-off for the locals, one they were quick to seize upon. While they had launched a few attacks of their own in the first half hour, many of them foundered on Sean Devine's penchant for straying offside. This time, he held his run, which allowed Kris Bright to play a one-two with his fellow front-runner. But the return pass didn't reach its target, thanks to Michael Valkanis, who had a super game at the heart of Adelaide's defence. Three minutes later, he all but showed his more attack-minded team-mates the route to goal. Picked out by Cornthwaite, who headed across a Brain corner struck beyond the far post, the unmarked Valkanis powered a header goalwards from six yards, and was about to wheel away in celebration when Noah Hickey launched himself at the ball and headed it off the line via the post. Still Adelaide pressed, this time with a 37th minute counter-attack rich in quality. Costanzo, Aloisi and Pantelis combined to present Rech with an angled pass, allowing the target man to reward the stunning run from deep which Alagich had made in order to support the attack. As he was surging forward, so, too, was Aloisi, who steamed into the penalty area on an arcing run, and only just failed to get on the end of Alagich's driven

low cross intended for the captain. Moss was very relieved when he was able to smother this particular threat. Following Aloisi's swerving thirty-five yard free-kick which only just flew past the far post, another stunning Adelaide counter-attack a minute before the interval deserved better fate than that which befell it. Rech's gorgeous touch and turn in the centre circle set up the raid, which saw Aloisi and Pantelis team up on the left. The latter's angled drive flew past the diving figure of Moss and crashed against the inside of the far post before cannoning back into play. The Knights were able to clear the danger, and were greatly relieved to hear Perry Mur's half-time whistle. The first twenty-five minutes of the second spell were largely uninspiring, with efforts from Christie, Devine and Brockie all failing to test Bajic during this period. The one moment of quality in this time came from the visitors, a delightful move featuring Costanzo, Aloisi, Alagich, Brain and Rech, who switched play cleverly to reward Pantelis' blindside run in behind the defence. He raced to the byline before pulling the ball back for Rech, who evaded a challenge before letting fly with a rasping drive which Moss blocked to safety. The Knights' goalkeeper, another of the quintet named in the extended All Whites' squad for next month's internationals against Malaysia, almost gifted Adelaide a second goal in the 69th minute, by spilling an Aloisi free-kick. Pantelis pounced quickly, and his cross to the far post wasn't cleared by Frank Van Eijs. Brain swooped, steering the ball back for Rech, who somehow headed across the face of a goal which was at his mercy in the 69th minute. His profligacy was punished two minutes later by an equaliser which delighted the 3079-strong crowd - a tally 114 shy of breaking the 40,000 barrier for Knights' home games this season. Christie's free-kick was cleared to the ever-enterprising Zenon Caravella. His driven cross met similar fate, only for Hickey to pick up the pieces. The best-performed New Zealand player in the squad in recent weeks - that there aren't enough Kiwi footballers around of similar calibre is one of the prime reasons why the Knights' squad is so reliant on foreign talent, some of whom, like some of their locally-born team-mates, don't measure up anyway! - picked out Devine with a measured cross, and the striker headed the ball across goal. Substitute Xiaobin Zhang had been introduced just four minutes earlier, and with what was virtually his first touch of the ball, he sent a powerful downward header flying into the roof of the net for a well-taken equaliser, one which greatly delighted the Chinese striker, who peeled off his shirt in celebration, an action which gave referee Mur reason to issue the game's solitary yellow card before play resumed. Cue an at times frantic twenty minutes in which both teams pressed for a winning goal, without creating a genuine clear-cut opening between them. Moss smothered a low shot from Brain, a feat matched at the other end by Bajic, who dealt similarly with Caravella's low cross intended for Zhang, as he homed in on the near post. Rech sent a header across the face of goal, while in stoppage time, Devine, who got through a power of work in the second half, nearly got his reward when released by the similarly hard-working Neil Emblen. But after beating an opponent, the scorer of three of the Knights' fourteen goals this season failed to find the target for a fourth time, meaning that the home team ended their campaign at North Harbour Stadium without a win to their name - although being one of just two teams to prevent premiership champions Adelaide from taking maximum points on their travels is some consolation. Knights:     Moss; Tinkler, Bazeley, Van Eijs, Hickey; Brockie, Christie, Caravella; Bright (Zhang, 67 (booked, 72)), Emblen, Devine Adelaide:     Bajic; Cornthwaite, Valkanis, Rees, Van Dommele; Alagich, Costanzo (Hatzis, 82), Aloisi, Pantelis (Goulding, 82); Rech, Brain (Matricciani, 77) Referee:     Perry Mur