Late winner sees Northcote beat Knights

A late Northcote goal has secured a 2-1 win over Melbourne Knights at Knights Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

After a scrappy first half it was Northcote who held the advantage going into the break thanks to a goal from Jonathan Voulgaris.

Melbourne Knights youngster Jake Nakic levelled the scores just after the hour mark but Piemonte scored the winning goal for Northcote with four minutes left on the clock.

The Knights intentions were evident early as right from the kick-off Nakic tried his luck from the half way line but his effort hardly troubled Northcote City goalkeeper Chris Theodoridis.

The next fifteen minutes produced nothing as both teams struggled to get find any rhythm in a very scrappy opening.

Northcote City mustered the first real opportunity of the game on 17 minutes and it was a chance that Milos Lujic should have tucked away.

James Kalifatidis stormed straight through the Knights defence before cutting it back to Lujic in the centre of the area but the unmarked forward took too long to bring the ball under control and eventually blasted his effort over the bar.

Shortly afterwards Knights goalkeeper Aaron Romein went down with a shoulder injury and was forced off with his replacement being 18-year-old Matthew Hrastov. Knights will hope the injury is not too serious.

It took until three minutes from the end of the first period for the game to spring to life courtesy of Jonathan Voulgaris.

Adrian Chiappetta played a wonderful ball over the top of the Knights defence to Voulgaris who calmly put the ball past Hrastov to give Northcote the lead.

Melbourne Knights had large amounts of possession in the first half but lacked the execution in the final third with a number of poor passes costing them.

Chiappetta had the chance to double his side’s advantage shortly after the start of the second half but he could not direct his header from a corner towards goal.

Knights’ Louis Fenton also headed over the bar minutes later but on this occasion it was from a Josip Kozic free kick.

The Knights finally nabbed an equaliser and they did it in spectacular fashion. After a scramble in the box out of nowhere Jake Nakic pulled out a stunning over-head kick to level the scores.

Just five minutes later the heavens opened and torrential rain poured down on Knights Stadium, causing all kinds of mistakes from both sides including a number of slips due to the wet pitch.

It soon cleared up and normal action resumed but both sides were struggling to adapt to the change of condition of the pitch.

The game was seemingly headed for a 1-1 draw but Dean Piemonte stepped up with just four minutes left with a long range strike to seal all three points for Northcote City.

The Knights’ next game will see them take on Geelong Rangers in the State Knockout Cup on Saturday at Knights Stadium – 6pm.

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