Grgic double guides Knights to Ballarat win

Melbourne Knights has defeated Ballarat Red Devils 4-2 in the Round 12 National Premier League Victoria match at Knights Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

 

A brace by young defender Ivan Grgic, and goals from Daniel Visevic and Shayan Alinejad was enough for Knights to secure the three points, and jump out of the relegation zone.

 

Ballarat opened the scoring in the 29th minute, when on a quick counter attack, Simon Murphy slotted the ball past Chris May. Until that point, Knights had been putting the visitors under pressure, with a handful of early chances.

 

Just six minutes later, Knights equalised through Grgic, who capitalised on an error by Ballarat ‘keeper Jordan Franken to tap the ball into an empty net.

 

Grgic stepped up again in the 40th minute, volleying home from a corner, which found him unmarked at the far post.

 

Tristan Romein equalised for Ballarat from the penalty spot in the 62nd minute, after the referee decided Michael Simms had fouled Simon Murphy. Romein sent May the wrong way from the spot to make it 2-2.  

  

The deadlock, however, only lasted two minutes, when a spectacular free kick by Visevic from range caught Franken off guard. The keeper had positioned himself too close to the far post, giving Visevic that chance to curl the ball into the near side of the net.  

 

Shayan Alinejad put the result beyond doubt in the 84th with a nice solo effort, dribbling his way into a shooting opportunity before slotting the ball past Franken to make the score 4-2.  

 

Knights did well to get the result despite not hitting top gear. The home side again playing a young team with the likes of Nikola Srbinovski, Leo Athanasiou, Michael Simms and Grgic all starting, while Luke Jurcic made an appearance off the bench.  

 

The win was soured somewhat by the first half substitution of Anthony Colosimo, who started the contest despite being forced off the ground with a shin injury in the cup game against Green Gully earlier in the week.  

 

Melbourne Knights next fixture is away against Bentleigh Greens on Friday, 13 June. Kick off at Kingston Heath is at 8:30pm.

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