Michael Ferrante's 85th minute strike gives ten man Pascoe Vale the victory, in a dramatic Rd 2 fixture away to Melbourne Knights.

“"Our character and ambition after going down to ten men was unbelievable"”
Adrian Talarico
At a vibrant Knights Stadium on Friday night, Pascoe Vale FC looked to improve upon their opening Round 1 draw, against Melbourne Knights. The atmosphere amongst a strong crowd at Somers Street was electric even before the first whistle, with former Knight Jacob Colosimo making his first return as a Paco player to his former club.

With a stunning backdrop of the Melbourne city skyline enhancing the twilight fixture, Vitale Ferrante’s men started blisteringly out of the blocks, controlling the early exchanges and dominating possession. Davey van’t Schip’s link up play and understanding with summer signing Colosimo was evident early on, while Marino Gasparis’ shot in anger in the 16th minute was only barely diverted away.

Matteo Ballan’s seamless transition into the NPL Squad was again on show, with his distribution, as well as some vital break up play through the midfield noticeable early on. In the 22nd minute, Davey van’t Schip’s dancing feet drew a foul from Knights defender Desic just outside the box on a slight angle, with Gasparis’s resulting free kick wickedly hitting the crossbar, leaving the Melbourne Knights keeper completely fooled.

Vitale Ferrante’s men grew further in confidence from this near miss, as efforts firstly by Gasparis and then van’t Schip were just dealt with unconvincingly by the Knights back four. With possession and a myriad of chances well and truly going the way of Pascoe Vale, it was only a matter of time before some brilliant hold-up play from van’t Schip, drawing in two defenders leaving them both for dead, and subsequently firing a cross from the right onto the head of Joseph Youssef broke the deadlock for Paco in the 38th minute.

The first half came to a close with Paco’s midfield combination of Quiynor and Ballan working beautifully in tandem, as well as Adrian Talarico marshalling his back four decisively in a brilliant first forty-five from our boys.

A distinct unease surrounded the Knights home fans, having been completely outplayed in the first half, with Alex Pavlidis barely threatened in the Paco goal as well as witnessing their former player Jacob Colosimo putting in work at both ends of the pitch in both attack and defence for his new club Pascoe Vale FC.

This seemingly dominant display from Paco fired the Knights into action, with Elvis Kamsoba making some impressive runs down the wing, pioneering a multitude of Knights counter attacks before finally putting the ball into the net in the 66th minute, only to be denied by the offside flag, much to the anger of the Knights home fans.

Colosimo and Gasparis made way for Matthew Lazaridis and Michael Ferrante respectively, with Melbourne Knights pressing extremely hard for an equaliser, which eventually came in the 77th minute through Kamsoba with a deft lob over Pavlidis’ outstretched hands, who consequently celebrated with an impressive backflip to the roars of the home supporters.
This sparked a frantic final ten minutes, as the match looked to have boiled over as tensions flared between both sides, before a second yellow card was shown to Abascal for the confrontation to bring Pascoe Vale down to ten men for the final minutes.

It truly seemed as though the Knights were destined to find a late winner, with free-flowing attacks utilising the extra man and causing Paco’s back four serious problems. With some backs-to-the-wall defending, Talarico released a Pascoe Vale counter attack finding van’t Schip on the left wing, who cut expertly inside onto his right foot drawing a cynical foul just outside the box to set up one final chance for Paco to grab an unlikely winner in the 85th minute.

Michael Ferrante stood over the resulting free kick, with his first effort on goal smashed into the Knights wall, before the ball somehow bobbling back to him, only for Ferrante to unleash a volley into the top right hand corner to snatch victory for ten man Pascoe Vale, Ferrante wheeling away in celebration surrounded by his teammates and silencing the Knights home support simultaneously.

An incredible game which had it all, a red card, a disallowed goal for offside and a stunning late winner from ten-man Pascoe Vale stealing all three points.

Vitale Ferrante was evidently thrilled with the win post game, stating “I’m stoked with the result. The boys showed unbelievable character in going down to ten men, it really galvanised the group in such a pressure cooker situation. “

“The free kick (Ferrante’s first attempt on goal) wasn’t a good one, but he struck it beautifully and it flew into the top corner. Mick deserves it, he’s been working hard to get back to fitness. All credit to him”.

When asked about Colosimo’s return to his former club, Ferrante had nothing but praise for our number 9. “We didn’t speak about his return prior to the fixture on purpose to take the pressure off Jacob, I thought he was a mountain up front for us today. He links up so creatively with Davey and Youey (Joseph Youssef).”

Adrian Talarico was equally ecstatic with the performance, expressing his admiration for the groups fight after going down to ten men. “Our character and ambition was unbelievable, to go down to ten men and come away with all three points in the manner we did is pure credit to the boys.”

“Coming here to Knights Stadium is always a hard task, they were switching and flinging diagonal passes everywhere in that second half, so for us to come away with the win we are very happy, and it definitely shows what this group is capable of.”