KNIGHTS BACK TO THEIR BEST

Surfers Paradise 2 (J. Rose, J. Haynes)

Gold Coast Knights 6 (L. Sleight 3, D. Skopljak, T. Pearcey, C. McBean)

HT 0:2

GOLD Coast Knights rediscovered their goalscoring touch with a convincing 6-2 thrashing of Surfers Paradise last night to maintain their charge towards the top of the table.

Having secured their first win of the campaign last weekend, Surfers came back down to earth with a thud against a hungry Knights side.

Luke Sleight registered another hat-trick and it was he who opened the scoring for the visitors just after the midway point of the first 45 minutes. Up to then Surfers had more than held their own but the breakthrough only served to open the floodgates for John Stewart’s men.

Deni Skopljak doubled the lead for the Knights before the interval before Sleight put the result beyond doubt with the third just seconds after the break.

The Knights’ big striker then completed his treble soon after and Surfers’ misery was compounded by a Tony Pearcey thunderbolt to make it 5-0.

The home side rallied and managed to reduce the deficit thanks to goals from Josh Rose and Jason Haynes, but Chris McBean added the sixth for the Knights to confirm their return to goal-hungry form.

“A few or our boys dropped their heads when we went behind but we had done well up to that point,” said Surfers’ boss Keith Garland.

“We showed a bit of character to pull a couple of goals back but we were naive at times and defended poorly. You can’t hide from 6-2 and we got punished for our mistakes,” he added.