Sunshine George Cross produced one of their worst performances for a long time when losing to Melbourne Knights 2-1 at the Knights Stadium.

The Cross went into this game minus experienced defender Daniel Rocco and midfielder Vasco Trpcevski who were both nursing injuries, as well as goalkeeper Martin John who is in Germany. Eighteen year old Michael Fiorenza took over in goal and did quite well in his debut match. The Georgies were further handicapped during the course of the match with injuries to captain Manny Muscat who was concussed and taken to hospital during the half time break. His replacement Ralph Napoli only lasted 8 minutes as he too was off to hospital after receiving a nasty gash that required 12 stitches. The match was one of low standard that was riddled by mistakes from both sides and it was always going to be a mistake that was going to decide the result. That mistake was made by the Georgie defence with only 11 minutes remaining, when anyone of three or four defenders could have cleared the ball to safety, but failed to do so. The ball rolled nicely into the path of Luke Slater who tucked his shot in off the post to give Melbourne Knights all 3 points. The Georgies went ahead after 21 minutes following some hard work by Trent Waterson who won the ball and found Mark Draycott just inside the penalty area. Draycott fired in a low hard drive that the Melbourne Knights keeper could only parry into the path of Fidell Richards who made no mistake to open the scoring. The Knights came more into the game after this goal and looked threatening. They drew level after 33 minutes when Manny Muscat gave away a free kick just outside the penalty area. The Knights fullback Dario Matkovic hit the ball sweetly over the wall and past a helpless Fiorenza for the equaliser. The second half was a battle for supremacy with the Knights always looking the more dangerous outfit. The Cross had a couple of good opportunities to regain the lead, but didn’t because of lack of composure in front of goal. It was much the same at the other end of the ground where Melbourne Knights spurned their chances with their wayward shooting. On this performance both teams should concentrate more on keeping away from the relegation zone instead of worrying about securing a place in the top 6.