Late Knights surge saves a point

A late Jacob Colosimo goal has cancelled out a fortunate goal from Jesse Krncevic for Richmond to salvage a point from Kevin Bartlett Reserve for the Knights.
A slow start for the Knights resulted in sustained pressure from Richmond after the latter started the stronger of the two. Probing runs from new starter Davey Van’t Ship enabled the dangerous Daniel Visevic to find space but was closed down well by Anthony Colosimo and Bryan Bran on the Knights’ left wing.
The first chance of the game fell to Krncevic after Michael Ferrante passed the ball into the box between Krncevic and kepper Seb Mattei, but the opportunity resulted in a free kick to the Knights after Krncevic slid into the young Mattei.
New Richmond recruit, and Knights trialee Steven Topalovic was causing much havoc in the middle of the park for the returning Ivica Praiz and Josip Magdic, managing to find himself unmarked throughout the whole match.
Both sides were subjected to a slippery pitch in rainy windswept conditions, but to their credit they both came out to play as best as the conditions could permit. The referee did indeed let play flow which resulted in a tough but fair encounter.
The half fizzled out in its final stages with a midfield tussle in which no one had ascendancy.
Both sides went into the break deadlocked at 0-0 and it looked as though a goal would be enough to separate the two.
If it was to be a goal to separate the two, the Knights would have felt aggrieved to have conceded within a minute of the restart with the Knights defence caught ball watching as Dimitri Tsiaras dove to reach the ball and head past an outstretched Mattei at the back post.
The Knights kicked into gear after the goal and began to pile pressure on Richmond in the chase for something out of the match. Richmond was content to sit back and play on the counter attack through their pacey wingers.
The Knights were right back in the contest in the 70th minute after Jacob Colosimo took his half chance with glee. Bryan Bran expertly intercepted the ball in the centre of midfield with a sliding tackle which fell to Colosimo who outpaced Milardovic, shot and deflected over Richmond keeper Stjepan Gal before bouncing into goal.
1-1 and the Knights were back in the contest with the upper hand.
The final twenty minutes came alive with a flurry of activity at both ends of the ground.
Chances fell to Kevin Townson who beat two players in the box, shot accross goals, beating Gal but not the post. Liam Cannell was put through on goal for the Knights with five minutes to play, but he couldn’t keep the ball down as the pressure forced him to blast it over the bar.
Steven Topalovic had an opportunity to steal the three points for Richmond in the dying seconds of the game as a centred ball from substitute Michael Catalano evaded the Knights defence as well as Milos Lujic and Jesse Krncevic to find the advancing Topalovic, but a last ditch tackle from Byran Bran kept the danger away.
Both sides had to settle for a draw which in reality was probably a fair result.
The Knights are at home in two weeks time against the Oakleigh Cannons, kicking off on Sunday 11th July at 3pm.

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