By Josip Zilic
After a frustrating 2-2 draw last Saturday against second last St Albans, North Geelong’s challenges only get bigger as it takes on the Melbourne Knights away on Friday night.
The Knights have had a slump in form after bordering the top six for most of the early stages of the season and they now sit third last.
Coming off a 2-1 loss to cross town rival Green Gully, the Knights will be stinging considering they led with seven minutes to go.
North Geelong’s bottom-of-the-ladder clash with St Albans took place under the hum of a large crowd and anyone who wasn’t in their seats would have missed the opening goal.
In just 40 seconds the ball was lost by North Geelong just before its attacking penalty area, where it was run out unchallenged before a splitting pass was played to Roddy Covarubbias who rounded the late charging Daniel Zilic to open the score.
North Geelong picked itself up, though, and eventually on 35 minutes it levelled the score when former Warrior Michael Grgic failed to clear an inbound ball which Matt Thorne was on hand to sneak into goal.
However, the lead didn’t last long.
Just two minutes later a speculative long ball was overrun by Bobby Vidanoski and fell to Caleb Mikulic who beat Darren Lewis in a one-on-one at the top of the box before scuffing his shot to send Zilic the wrong way initially and beating him on the inside post.
With a mountain to climb in the second half, coach Micky Colina rang the changes at half time replacing Zilic in goal for Marko Stevanja.
North Geelong was providing better passages of play but was lacking in composure upfront to get back on the scoreboard.
That was until the 60th minute when Andrew Doig was on hand to meet a cross at the back post to drill past Aaron Romein.
Despite the lion’s share of the half, the Warriors weren’t able to penetrate any further and will now need to set their sights for Friday night’s opportunity at Knights Stadium.
There is an important fundraiser on the night for North Geelong legend David Cervinski who has battled melanoma.
His two former clubs have joined forces to hold a legends’ match involving a range of his former team mates, many of whom were household names during the National Soccer League days.
Come along for the 7pm start and support a legend of the sport.
