A stunning late equaliser from Jeremy Brockie saw the New Zealand Knights stun Sydney FC in their Hyundai A-League encounter at North Harbour Stadium on December 30, the 2-2 draw producing the bottom-placed team's first point on home turf this season, as the competition resumed following the Christmas break. Both teams were still in holiday mode for much of this match, however, and it wasn't until the introduction of fit-again Knights substitute Neil Emblen, fifteen minutes from time, that this slumbering spectacle stirred into action once more. For the opening few minutes provided action aplenty, including two goals which suggested that a lively encounter was in store. Sadly, it proved a false dawn, but as a glorious sunset cast its rays across the 4212 fans present, the game was set alight in the third minute. Jeremy Christie's free-kick was met fifteen yards out from goal by Sean Devine, who directed a delicious deft glancing header inside Clint Bolton's near post, Sydney's goalkeeper scrambling across his goal in vain as the cellar-dwellers took a shock lead against Oceania's representatives at the recent FIFA Club World Championships. Roused by this setback, the visitors' response was swift - they were level three minutes later. Again, a free-kick was the source of the goal, but there was nothing deft nor delicious about David Carney's effort - his misdirected set-piece ricocheted off the Knights' defensive wall, leaving goalkeeper Danny Milosevic helpless as the ball spun awkwardly and bounced into the top far corner of the net. After Darren Bazeley had intercepted a Ufuk Talay pass intended for the free-running Carney, the game swiftly descended into a rather disjointed affair which saw both teams undoing all their well-intended approach play with final passes and crosses of decidedly inferior quality to the interchanges which had preceded same. A Kris Bright effort which whizzed past the post on the half-hour roused patrons from their slumbers, and again stirred the embers in the Sydneysiders, who dominated proceedings late in the first half, and got their reward deep in stoppage time. Sasho Petrovski sent a twenty-yarder sizzling a foot past the post after a neat exchange involving Dwight Yorke and Carney in the 37th minute, while the same player sent another twenty-yarder sailing over the crossbar two minutes later, as the Knights failed to adequately clear a Steve Corica corner. Cue another Sydney attack in the 44th minute, which saw Mark Milligan letting fly from thirty yards. Milosevic was right behind this effort, but stood no chance in stoppage time as Yorke sent him the wrong way from the penalty spot, his opportunity coming to pass when a neat flick by David Zdrillic ricocheted off the hand of Frank Van Eijs to the defender's advantage, giving referee Peter Green little option but to point to the twelve-yard mark. Conceding a goal on the stroke of half-time meant the onus was on the Knights to make a game of it in the second spell, but Sydney were the team who enjoyed the greater share of possession for much of the half. It was the home team who struck the first shot in anger, however, a rasping drive from Zenon Caravella fizzing past the far post after John Tambouras' free-kick from inside his own half had seen Devine holding the ball up well on the edge of the Sydney penalty area, while awaiting for support to arrive. The Knights' goalscorer later tried an ambitious chip of Bolton which the goalkeeper gathered comfortably. In between times, the visitors went close to extending their advantage, Carney setting up Zdrillic for a shooting chance. But Glen Moss proved equal to it, the Knights' replacement goalkeeper having been called into action at half-time due to Milosevic succumbing to a knee injury he picked up while clearing his lines in the first spell. Moss' goal came under the cosh in a huge way

around the seventy minute mark, as the Sydneysiders looked to make the game safe with a third goal. It wouldn't come, however, despite the best efforts of Petrovski, who directed three headers wide of the mark, the second of which arose following a superbly weighted Alvin Ceccoli cross. Carney was a constant feature in Sydney's attacks, and it was no surprise that he should prise open the Knights' defence in the 72nd minute to present Corica with a chance. But the midfielder was stopped in his tracks by a superbly timed tackle from Van Eijs, the defender surging out of his penalty area with ball at toe in majestic fashion as Corica wondered what on earth had happened! After Carney and Christie had exchanged shots on goal - the latter sent a crisply struck twenty yard free-kick low past the defensive wall but just past the far post as well, the Knights went hunting for an equaliser, inspired by new arrival Emblen, whose height and physical presence offered the home team a new tactical weapon to exploit, in place of the hard-working but tiring Divine. It was Kris Bright who benefited most from the introduction of the substitute, as it released him from the role of attacking focal point and allowed him to run at Sydney's defenders. Naoki Imaya followed his lead in the 83rd minute, and the blue-clad team's midfield parted like the Red Sea in front of the Knights' Japanese player, who promptly threaded a peach of a pass through for Bright to latch onto. Bolton was off his line in an instant to thwart this opportunity in splendid fashion, but the 'keeper stood not a prayer three minutes later, as the home team struck an equaliser they deserved. Fittingly, Bright and Emblen played key roles in the goal, the former running at the retreating Sydney defence before laying the ball off to the Englishman, whose hanging cross beyond the far post found the unmarked Brockie arriving bang on cue, bang being the operative word. For the dreadlocked winger didn't hesitate in thrashing a ferocious first-time volley across the bewildered figure of Bolton and into the far corner of the net from the most acute of angles, his effort hit with such force that the sphere had cannoned out of the net and back into the goalmouth before anyone had time to react - a fabulous goal which breathed new life into a match very much in need of it. For Sydney suddenly stopped going through the motions and started playing with no little amount of urgency. Gone almost instantly was the oft contemptuous manner with which they had treated this match, an attitude epitomised by the much-touted figure of Yorke, who failed to satisfy the standards football followers in both hemispheres have come to expect of him in this spectacle. No team deserves to win matches if they fail to show their opponents the respect they deserve by performing to the best of their abilities, and Sydney returned home with the solitary point their display merited after the final whistle concluded an additional five minutes of action, which included two heart-stopping moments involving Petrovski. The first saw him blaze over from six yards with the goal at his mercy on receipt of a Carney cross, while the other late scare the Knights endured saw the striker, with the better-positioned and unmarked Carney in support, opt to shoot on receipt of a neat interchange featuring Milligan, Robbie Middleby and Ceccoli. Moss smothered the shot, and ensured the home team of a deserved share of the spoils from this 2-2 affair. Knights:     Milosevic (Moss, 46); Tambouras, Bazeley, Van Eijs; Brockie (Collett, 90), Imaya, Christie, Caravella, Hickey; Devine (Emblen, 75), Bright Sydney:     Bolton; Milligan, Timpano, Fyfe, Ceccoli; Carney, Yorke (booked, 11), Talay (McFlynn, 88), Corica (Rudan, 84); Petrovski, Zdrillic (Middleby, 77) Referee:     Peter Green