By Lachlan Taylor

Sunday 24 February 2008

MELBOURNE Knights and Altona Magic played out a fiery 1-1 draw at Knights Stadium last night.

Altona took the lead through a Michael Curcija penalty just before halftime before the game was turned on its head with the dismissal of Magic defender Steve Laurie.
The Knights responded thanks to a brilliant bicycle kick goal from Anthony Pelikan before they too went a man down after Steve Iosifidis received a second yellow card.
Both sides had chances to win the game, but neither could find the goal which would have netted both ice-breaking wins.
Altona had the first chance of the game in the 18th minute when Curcija fed Carl Recchia inside the area, but his low shot was blocked by Knights keeper Savas Ozdemir.
The Magic should have taken the lead through Henry Fa’arodo on 22 minutes.
Curcija again provided the through ball but Fa’arodo shot straight into Ozdemir, before his follow up effort was blocked by a sliding Matthew Grbesa.
The Knights slowly began to gain the ascendancy and Anthony Pelikan and Joe Spiteri both saw chances go begging. Spiteri’s volley was saved by Magic keeper Peter Zois before Pelikan’s long range effort went just wide minutes later.
Then, against the run of play, Altona won a penalty in the 43rd minute, when Steve Iosifidis crudely brought down Carl Recchia as he was through on goal.
Curcija duly slotted the spot kick and several Knights players, including Iosifidis, were booked for dissent.
But the game took another turn on the stroke of halftime when a scuffle broke out when Steve Laurie sent Tommy Milardovic crashing to the ground.
Laurie received his marching orders from the referee.
The Knights were instantly on the attack in the second half and the equaliser finally came in the 62nd minute.
Anthony Pelikan saw his initial shot blocked before delivering a spectacular bicycle kick which gave Zois no chance.
Zoran Petrevski nearly gave the Knights the lead minutes later when Spiteri found him unmarked at the back post, but his powerful volley struck the side netting.
Then the game took another turn when Steve Iosifidis received a second yellow card for a handball in the 70th minute, bringing Altona back into the match.
But neither side was able to find the winner in the last 20 minutes, leaving both teams without a win in 2008.
Altona coach Vlado Tortevski saw the positives despite his team surrendering its lead.
“I think 1-1 was a fair result,” Tortevski said.
We played a good first 45 minutes, we created good chances and scored a goal.
“It was disappointing to lose a man after we had taken the lead but we battled hard and after they lost a man it was pretty even,” he said.