Knights seal fourth place as they head into finals

Melbourne Knights go up against Dandenong Thunder in their final home match of the 2023 NPL Victoria regular season at Knights Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Ben Cahn’s side come into Sunday’s clash off the back of a commanding 4-1 win over Queensland outfit, Lions in the Australia Cup Round of 32 on Thursday night.

Gian Albano bagged a brace while Mohammad Sumaoro and Mitch Hore were also on target as Knight secured a spot in the Round of 16 for the second time in their history.

Knights also locked in a top six finish and return to finals football for the first time since 2015 with a 4-1 win on the road over Hume City in their last league outing.

Knights Round 24 victory over Hume saw them set a club record goalscoring return of 47 in a single NPL Victoria campaign, bettering the previous record of 45 set in 2018.

The newly set goalscoring record goes alongside another club record eight match NPL Victoria unbeaten streak set earlier this season in a strong first campaign for Ben Cahn at Knights Stadium.

While Sunday’s match is Knights final regular season home match for the 2023 season, three points would go a long way towards securing fourth position and a home final.

Knights start the weekend with 44 points to their name, three more than fifth place Port Melbourne and six more than sixth placed Altona Magic.

Dandenong Thunder, who defeated Green Gully 1-0 in their last outing sit eighth on 33 points and must win if they’re any chance of a squeezing into sixth position.

Thunder may already be out of the finals race before kick off in Sunday’s match if Altona defeat Bentleigh Greens at Magic Park on Saturday afternoon.

Knights ran out 1-0 winners in the reverse fixture against Thunder at George Andrews Reserve in May thanks to a Gevaro Nepomuceno strike.

In total Knights and Thunder have met thirteen times at NPL Victoria level with Knights winning on five occasions, Thunder six and there having been two draws between the pair.

Sunday’s match at Knights Stadium kicks off at 4pm and will be live streamed on NPL.TV.

MATCH DETAILS

NPL Victoria 2023 – Round 25: Melbourne Knights v Dandenong Thunder 

Knights Stadium, Sunshine North

Sunday, August 13 (4pm KO)