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Northcote City have picked up their first win in five games over a ten man Melbourne Knights, snapping a three game winning streak for the away team after a 3-2 victory at John Cain Memorial Park.
A Milos Lujic hat trick was enough for Northcote to pick up the points after a bizarre game which saw a red card to Tomislav Uskok, eight yellow cards, two penalties including one saved and five second half goals.
Northcote’s victory was their first in five games and moves them to fourth on the table while Melbourne Knights sit in eighth before Sunday’s fixture between Southern Stars and Heidelberg United.
An uneventful first half saw the teams enter the dressing rooms locked at 0-0, and with limited scoring opportunities no-one predicted what was about to happen.
The game changed in the second half when Uskok was sent off for a foul from behind on Alex Rojas.
The red card triggered a minor scuffle with the two teams involved in some push and shove with Ryan Filipovic being rewarded a yellow card for his part.
Just three minutes later, Lujic opened the scoring as he put away an Alex Rojas corner with the ball controversially ruled over the goal line by the assistant referee.
The action packed half did not stop then as Jacob Colosimo was brought down in the Melbourne Knights penalty area but he failed to beat Theodoridis from the spot who saved into the right corner.
Minutes later Melbourne Knights were awarded a second dot-shot as Anthony Colosimo was brought down by Hayden D’Agostino.
This time Craig Sweeney made no error and tied the game at one each.
The score line was short lived though, as a long ball found Milos Lujic who broke through the Knights defence, beating Romein to hand Northcote the lead.
Lujic netted his hat trick just minutes later when Jonathon Voulagris played through the striker, rounding Romein to put the ball into an empty net.
Melbourne Knights managed to get one back through Chris Talajic but it was all too late as Northcote City walked away with the three points.
Northcote City Coach Goran Lozanovski left nothing to the imagination when questioned after the match.
“It was the most disgusting game I’ve seen all season,” he said.
“The red card changed a game a bit; we got on top, scored a few goals and put them on the back foot.
“For us it’s a turning point. We’re playing the team on top of the ladder next week which is important for us so we can go into that with a lot of confidence.”
Meanwhile Melbourne Knights Coach Andrew Marth said he was happy how his boys responded when going down to ten men.
“When we went down to ten men I thought we played quite well. The boys showed a lot of character and we got a goal back.
“A lack of concentration followed though and they scored in the next two minutes, so it’s a funny game.”
Next week Northcote City has the difficult task of travelling to George Andrews Reserve to face Dandenong Thunder while Melbourne Knights face Bentleigh Greens at Knights Stadium.
NORTHCOTE CITY: Chris THEODORIDIS, Adriano CHIAPPETTA, Bonel OBRADOVIC, Milos LUJIC, James KALIFATIDIS (Jonathon VOULGARIS 65’), Hayden D’AGOSTINO, Paul SAVIO, Antoni JANKOVSKI, Alex ROJAS (Michael CATALANO 67’), Bradley TRELOAR, Dean PIEMONTE (Ricardo GONZALEZ 89’).
Unused Subs: Keith GALLAGHER, Nick TSOULI.
Goals: Lujic 63’, 75’, 81’.
Yellow Cards: Theodoridis 11’, Rojas 41’, D’Agoostino 73’.
MELBOURNE KNIGHTS: Aaron ROMEIN, Ryan FILIPOVIC, Adam ZILIC, Tomislav USKOK, Shaun ROMEIN, Craig SWEENEY, Kayne VINCENT (Yusuf YUSUF 73’), Anthony COLOSIMO, Shayan ALINEJAD (Christopher TALAJIC 79’), Jake NAKIC (Jacob COLOSIMO 46’), Ben SUREY.
Unused Subs: Mathew HRASTOV, Brandon ZEZOVSKI.
Yellow cards: J. Colosimo 47’, A. Romein 49’, Zilic 53’, Filipovic 60’, Sweeney 88’.
Red Card: Uskok 59’.
Goals: Sweeney 74’, Talajic 93’.
