The sorry Hyundai A-League season of the New Zealand Knights continued unabated at North Harbour Stadium on October 29, as the Central Coast Mariners gained revenge for the first round result between the teams by scoring a 3-1 win over the beleaguered Kiwi combination. The Knights, in terms of possession of the ball, enjoyed more of the sphere than their opponents, but if he hasn't done so already, coach John Adshead needs to get his charges working on delivering quality final ball into the strikers, because it is that aspect of the game, more than any other, which is leaving the Knights in a league of their own at the wrong end of the table. After all, if you don't score goals, you can't win matches, and an average of a goal every two games is hardly the recipe which will attract the punters, as evidenced by the paltry crowd of 2583 which made the trek to a venue designed to hold ten times the number which witnessed this fixture. The match began in lively fashion, with both teams on the board before the first ten minutes had concluded. The Knights set out their stall with a sharp third minute move which featured Steve Fitzsimmons, Naoki Imaya and Darren Bazeley. The fullback clipped the ball in towards the first-mentioned player, who had continued his run, but his progress was thwarted. That of Imaya wasn't, however, and the Japanese midfielder pounced on the ball and let fly with a dipping twenty-yard drive which Danny Vukovic tipped over the crossbar. The resulting corner was cleared by the Mariners, who stormed downfield and opened the scoring. Tom Pondeljak surged down the left and, after gaining a throw-in, maintained the momentum of the move by taking the set-piece quickly. Dean Heffernan was up in support, and powered through the ranks of the outnumbered Knights rearguard to flick a shot beyond Danny Milosevic into the net, the goalkeeper getting his foot to the effort but failing to make enough contact to deny the scorer. That goal temporarily silenced the local faithful, but they were in full voice four minutes later, after Simon Yeo had levelled matters from the penalty spot. The scorer had been felled from behind by Damien Brown as they contested Imaya's corner, and referee Neil Fox, who got this call right, but not so a number of others in this match, had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Back came the visitors, with Pondeljak, who was stupidly booked for protesting the penalty decision, was instrumental in a tenth minute short corner routine which featured Neil Spencer. His cross picked out Alex Wilkinson, who directed his header at Milosevic, who smothered a Stewart Petrie effort soon afterwards, following Wilkinson's charge down the left. Nineteen minutes in, the Mariners came close to regaining the lead. Wayne O'Sullivan motored down the right to latch onto the rebound from a Spencer free-kick, and whipped in a cross to the far post, where Andrew Clark was arriving at a great rate of knots. His flicked finish flew past the upright. Cue a riposte from the Knights, Yeo releasing Joshua Rose at pace down the left. He cut inside before firing in a low cross intended for Fitzsimmons, but the Mariners' rearguard stood their ground well on this occasion. They were floundering around in a huge way in the 28th minute, when Fitzsimmons, after turning one opponent and swerving past another, hit an absolute screamer from twenty-five yards which Vukovic barely saw. Only the crossbar saved him, but such was the power in the midfielder's shot that the ricochet first came to earth fully five yards outside the area - it was a monstrous effort, well deserving of better fate. Rattled by this effort - no, not the crossbar! - the Mariners scrambled the ball out of play, only for Bazeley to pile more pressure on them with a long throw-in. The sphere was returned to the fullback, who chanced his arm from distance. The deflection it took was enough to take the sting out of his shot, much to Vukovic's relief. Undaunted, the Knights pressed on, Cole Tinkler sending Yeo surging through once more. But for a timely tackle from Michael Beauchamp, the local faithful would have been proclaiming a second goal for their team, one sporting a debutant in Kris Bright who certainly didn't look out of place in what was the biggest game to date in his fledgling footballing career. The home team's inability to make the most of the possession they savoured over the course of the next ten minutes or so ultimately came back to haunt them - one can only wonder where they would be on the league table were they able to give their strikers decent service, with final passes laced with quality and conviction. Instead, it was the Mariners who looked the more likely side to score before the break, and while Imaya lashed a volley wildly over the bar at the other end of the park, both the visitors' openings in the death throws of the first spell required Milosevic's intervention to ensure the teams turned around at 1-1. The first, in the 42nd minute, saw the 'keeper punching the ball clear off Beauchamp's head as the defender looked to get on the end of a Pondeljak throw-in. The latter, who was easily the visitors' most inventive player throughout proceedings, then dropped deep to receive a pass from Andre

Gumprecht, turned past Imaya and stormed forward. Pondeljak got to the edge of the penalty area before unleashing a rasping drive which Milosevic parried to safety. In the process of doing so, however, the goalkeeper injured himself, and he was not to return for the second half. Instead, Glen Moss was given the honour, and his first task of consequence was to fish the ball out of his net, the Mariners having restored their lead three minutes into the second spell. It was another cleverly worked short corner routine which unhinged the Knights, Spencer rolling the ball at pace to the edge of the area, where Pondeljak was lurking. He burst onto the ball, powered to the by-line on an arcing run, and held off the challenge of Bright before clipping a well-flighted cross beyond the far post. The unmarked figure of Petrie arrived on cue to direct a downward header home - 2-1 Mariners. This stunned the home team, and while they regathered their senses, the visitors came close to making the game safe. Moss grabbed a Brown corner off the head of Beauchamp in the 51st minute, while two minutes later, the substitute goalkeeper made a fine save to thwart Gumprecht, after a storming counter-attack from the Mariners which featured Pondeljak and O'Sullivan. A rather harsh offside call soon afterwards curtailed Yeo's quest to level the scores, and after Gumprecht had thumped a twenty-five yarder just past the post, following a Brown corner, the game was up for the Knights thanks to an even harsher decision by the match officials, this one deciding the destiny of the points, and effectively killing the game off as a contest. In fairness to the officials, the speed of the Mariners' counter-attack was such that it left them in exceedingly difficult positions to make the call, and when you see, from fifty-odd yards away, a striker go down in the penalty area with a defender right next to him, the laws of nature suggest your first thought is bound to be 'penalty'. It's moments like these when a video referee would be hugely advantageous to football. And it all started inside the Mariners' penalty area, when Yeo turned past Clark, only for Gumprecht to step in and avert the danger. The Knights striker appealed for a penalty, by which time Heffernan had already hoisted the ball forward. Cue a foot-race between Pondeljak and Tinkler, the striker just in front. Into the penalty area the pair powered, only for Pondeljak to overrun the bouncing ball. In turning to retrace his steps, he lost his footing, and his wrist bore the brunt of his heavy landing. At no stage did Tinkler make contact with the striker, who was stretchered off in considerable pain from his self-inflicted wound. Tinkler's pain was greater, however, as he could do nothing to prevent Petrie from rifling home the penalty which ensured the points would be westward-bound - 3-1, with eighteen minutes left on the clock. The Knights had chances to reduce the deficit before the finish, but Fitzsimmons, Zenon Caravella and Rose gave Vukovic little cause for concern with their efforts. The Mariners, meanwhile, came close to further enhancing their winning margin, with Spencer volleying over following good work by Gumprecht in the 76th minute. Substitute Matthew Osman came close near the end with a rasping twenty-yard drive, after a delightful move featuring Spencer, Gumprecht and John Hutchinson, while after Russell Woodruffe had rattled the sidenetting - Gumprecht and Petrie were pivotal players in this raid, Hutchinson was only denied a goal by the presence of Moss in stoppage time, the goalkeeper saving at close quarters after Heffernan and Petrie had carved open a static and dispirited Knights defence, which had long since hoisted the white flag. The Mariners hoisted themselves up to fourth place on the league table after this result, a position which the Knights can only dream about realising in this campaign, so far adrift of the rest of the contenders are the cellar-dwellers. But the media-led calls for John Adshead's sacking - borne, of course, of impatience - are somewhat premature, reactionary and, it must be said, decidedly misguided and short-sighted. When a problem is deep-seated in nature - and clearly this is the case both with the Knights and their predecessors, the Football Kingz, who under-achieved in each of their last three seasons in Australian competition - no amount of deckchair-shuffling will resolve it. So why call for deckchairs to be shuffled? What is required is the old standby of good old-fashioned hard labour, with everyone at Knights FC working together for the overall good. However, the Knights need to apply this in copious amounts if they are to regain a modicum of respectability before the season concludes, make no mistake. Knights:     Milosevic (Moss, 46); Bazeley, Hay (booked, 54), Tinkler, Collett; Fitzsimmons (Devine, 90), Imaya (Zhang, 82), Caravella, Rose; Yeo, Bright Mariners:     Vukovic; Wilkinson, Beauchamp, Clark (booked, 82), Heffernan (booked, 52); O'Sullivan (Osman, 88), Spencer, Gumprecht, Brown (Hutchinson, 86); Petrie, Pondeljak (booked, 7) (Woodruffe, 72 (booked, 89)) Referee:     Neil Fox