Tara Murray
Melbourne Knights are one step closer to achieving their goal of making the national stage of the Australia Cup.
The Knights beat the Bentleigh Greens on Tuesday night in round six, to win through to the final 10 of the Victorian stage.
Knights coach Ben Cahn said the win was another box ticked.
“It’s obviously where we want to be,” he said of the national stage.
“We aimed to try and get to the national stage, it’s important for us and there’s one game to go.”
Cahn said facing the Greens midweek at Kingston Heath was always going to be a test, with the Greens starting to show some improvement.
The Knights were able to open the scoring through Gian Albano in the fifth minute through a penalty.
That was the score line at half time before Corey Sewell doubled the score line in the 62nd minute
That would be the match, with the Knights winning 2-0.
Cahn said they would take the win.
“It wasn’t the cleanness performance,” he said. “Sometimes in cup games it’s about getting the win, not how you do it.
“It takes one result to get knocked out. We were scrappy, but got the win and are able to progress.”
The win continues the good form for the Knights, which entering the weekend’s matches sitting in fourth spot.
The Knights have come away with points in their last seven games, ahead of their match with the Oakleigh Cannons on Friday night.
Cahn said they knew they were on a good run.
“The boys are confident,” he said.
“We got straight into playing Oakleigh which is a massive league game. We’re building a nice buffer between us the teams outside the top six and we want to focus on expanding that gap.
“We also want to start picking up points on the teams above us.”
While happy with how the season has gone so far, Cahn knows there’s plenty of work ahead of them.
He said they were still to hit their peak.
“We started the season with 12 new players, a new coach and new staff,” he said.
“We’re still working and we’ll work to keep on improving. The way I work, I want to peak at the business end of the season.
Joining the Knights in the next round of the Australia Cup is the St Albans Saints.
The Saints beat the North Geelong Warriors, 1-0 on Tuesday night.
While the Knights and Saints progressed on, the Brimbank Stallions and North Sunshine Eagles cup runs came to an end.
The Stallions lost to Geelong 3-1, after going a man down late in the first half.
The Eagles came from behind to level scores with Yarraville Glory, to force the game to extra time.
Neither team could find a winner, with the game going to penalties, with the Glory winning 5-4.
