NEVER SAY DIE KNIGHTS

Gold Coast Knights 4 (D. Pilic, C. McBean, D. Skopljak, T. Pearcey)

Mudgeeragba 2 (J. Whitehead, S. Billing)

HT 0:1

GOLD Coast Knights are showing the necessary determination to take out this year’s premiership title, but they look just as determined to make sure they do it the hard way.

Forced to transform a 4-1 deficit into a 5-4 win last weekend, they again looked on course for defeat against bottom-of-the-table Mudgeeragba, trailing 2-0 at home with just half an hour remaining.

Justin Whitehead’s thunderbolt gave Mudgeeragba a half-time lead and Shane Billing doubled their advantage after the interval to give the visitors a surprise but deserved foothold on the game.

The key for the Knights revival was a swift riposte and David Pilic duly obliged in the 60^th minute to change the dynamic of the match and from there it was all Gold Coast Knights.

The equaliser came soon after thanks to Chris McBean’s effort and Deni Skopljak completed the comeback to the delight of the home fans.

Right at the death Tony Pearcey nodded in Pilic’s free-kick to make it 4-2 and secure both the points and pole position in the premiership for John Stewart’s men.

The Knight’s feat was made all the more remarkable by the fact they again played with ten men after Corey Young was dismissed by the referee for dissent in the second half.

“Last week was incredible and last night again was hard to believe,” said a breathless Stewart.

“I told the players after the game that they showed me last week that they could come back but they didn’t have to show me again this week!

“Earlier on in the season we were racing away and winning comfortably but now we seem to be allowing the opposition into the game and coming from behind. But at this stage of the season any win is a good win,” he added.

For Stewart’s counterpart at Mudgeeragba, Marc Boelen, it was a familiar story.

“We’re destroyed; the boys were gutted after the game. We had a game-plan that we executed for 60 minutes then we choked basically,” Boelen said.