Melbourne Knights march into Australia Cup quarter-final for first time in club history
Melbourne Knights marched into the Australia Cup quarter-finals for the first time in club history but are sweating on a knee injury to a star goalscorer.
Local Sport
Don't miss out on the headlines from Local Sport . Followed categories will be added to My News.
Celebrating its 70-year anniversary, Melbourne Knights is into the Australia Cup quarter-finals for the first time in club history.
A dominant display delivered a 2-0 win over South Australian giant-killer Campbelltown City at Knights Stadium on Tuesday night.
The home team bossed the game with 63 per cent of possession and 22 shots to eight – six on target to nil – against a club that had knocked out A-League club Macarthur in the previous round.
Lady luck shone on the Knights just before half-time as Mo Sumaoro opened the scoring.
The dangerous winger’s pressure paid dividends as he deflected an attempted clearance past stranded Campbelltown goalkeeper Alex Woodlands and into the back of the net.
And he was at it again early in the second half, an incisive run creating a chance for Mitch Hore, who finished clinically to double the lead.
Melbourne Knights peppered the Campbelltown goal throughout the second half but couldn’t find a third.
Coach Ben Cahn was pleased with the performance ahead of a NPL Victoria preliminary final against Avondale on Saturday.
“It was a strange night, both teams with half an eye on finals on the weekend,” he said.
“Once we got to 2-0 the game started to die a bit, I didn’t want to go too early with changes in case they got one back but the tempo definitely dropped.
“I was surprised how defensive they were.
“I’ve watched them quite a lot in the league and they do sit off but I thought they might come out a little bit more aggressive.
“We forced them deep and it gave us a lot of control but they were very organised and hard to break down.
“The only negative was we didn’t get a third earlier and give ourselves a chance to rest some players for the preliminary final on the weekend.”
However, the night was soured by a potential knee injury to Sumaoro.
The Knights forward was a standout best-on-ground before a seemingly inococuous collision on the hour mark.
It saw him helped off the ground by two trainers before a stretcher took him down to the rooms.
“Unfortunately it looks potentially like an ACL, so we’re monitoring it carefully,” Cahn said.
“Sometimes the ones that don’t look the worst can often turn out to be the worst, so we’ll do everything to look after him and get him recovered.”
The Knights laid siege to the Campbelltown goal for the rest of the game.
Ivan Franjic’s free kick was deflected just wide and Josh Phelps headed wide from the resulting corner.
Hore came agonisingly close to a second when he thrashed a long-range shot over the bar and Franjic headed wide shortly after from another corner.
A beautiful flowing counter-attack ended at the feet of Ciaran Bramwell but he was able to beat Woodlands, the Campbelltown custodian making a sharp double save minutes later.
Quite for much of the match, Gian Albano had two golden chances late, firstly denied point-blank by Woodlands and then his shot blocked by a retreating defender with the goal at his mercy.
Despite not finding a third, it mattered little with the visitors not forcing Chris Oldfield to make a save in the Knights goal.
The club will now look ahead to a preliminary final clash with NPL premier Avondale on Saturday.
NPL: SALMON’S AWESOME FOURSOME, KNIGHTS PROGRESS
LEADER: GET YOUR LOCAL SPORT NEWS HERE
SL1: PREMIERSHIP EARNS ALTONA CITY PREMIER LEAGUES BERTH
Cahn is determined to make more history for the club in its anniversary season.
“It’s been a big week, we’ve broken two club records – first NPL preliminary final and now our first Australia Cup quarter-final,” he said.
“It’s certainly not what you think of Melbourne Knights but that’s why I came here and a lot of these boys joined me on the journey because we want to bring this club back to where it belongs.”
Heidelberg United is the only other NPL Victoria club left in the Cup and the Warriors travel to Mt Druitt Town Rangers on Wednesday night.
Australia’s biggest junior football club audited
A forensic accountant investigating claims of fraud within the financials of Mt Eliza Junior Football Club has revealed its findings. Here’s what we know.
Hawks AFLW fly north to claim Cazalys fortress
Hawthorn’s AFLW side fly into Cairns looking to make their Northern Nest a fortress beginning with Thursday night’s blockbuster against Melbourne to kick off Indigenous Round.