By ADEM SARICAOGLU
LOCAL Victorian Premier League rivals Green Gully and Melbourne Knights couldn’t be split at Green Gully Reserve on Saturday, even after a last-minute penalty kick.
Knights’ striker Thomas Fraser stepped up the spot in the 93rd minute with the match deadlocked at 1-1, but couldn’t get the ball through the defences of Gully keeper Kieran Gonzalez.
So impressive was the save, it moved Cavaliers coach Dean Hennessy into describing it as “world class” afterward.
But the 90-plus minutes of football preceding that great stop was nothing more than an epic struggle, with the only lead of the match lasting one minute.
Neither club could break through in the first half but it didn’t take long into the second before someone finally struck.
Gully’s Mathew Sanders was the man who managed to impact the scoreboard first just three minutes before the hour-mark.
The next minute, however, the Cavaliers’ lead was squandered.
The home team was caught napping at the ensuing kick-off, resulting in a quick Knights forward charge that handed Fraser the equaliser that proved the final score of the match.
For now at least, Hennessy remains at a loss for how his Cavaliers gave up the lead so easily.
“It was so disappointing, and whether we just switched off we’re not sure yet,” Hennessy said.
“We’ll look at the video analysis and see why it went wrong, but it went wrong within 30 seconds.”
However in his assessment of the full 90 minutes, Hennessy pointed out other reasons why Green Gully didn’t get the full three points.
“We had a couple of great chances to take the lead in the first 10 or 15 minutes,” he said.
“I think that if we had taken an early lead and took the initiative, it most probably would have given us a great opportunity to win.”
Knights coach Andrew Marth was left ruing a poor start, but was overall pleased to leave with a point.
“We did quite well but we started off a bit ordinary – it took 20 minutes to get into the game,” Marth said.
“I was very pleased with our structure at the back. Our back four and our goalkeeper were exceptional.“Where we have to improve on is actually our quality of crossing and then finishing.”
While the Knights have enjoyed a good start to their VPL campaign and currently sit fifth, Green Gully has staggered to a 1-1-3 start to be languishing down in ninth.
While Hennessy admits there is pressure from within to improve, he remains assured it won’t be long before the Cavaliers start earning more points.
“Look we’ve still got a lot of hard work to do,” he said.“I’m still confident with the group we’ve got that we’re playing good enough football to get results.”
