Melbourne Knights FC
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| Full name | Melbourne Knights Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Knights, Croatia, Croacija |
| Founded | 1953 |
| Ground | Knights Stadium |
| Capacity | 15,000 |
| Captain | Milan Batur |
| President | Tony Karlusić |
| Manager | Andrew Marth |
| League | NPL Victoria |
| 2015 | 4th |
Melbourne Knights FC is an Australian semi-professional football club based in the suburb of Sunshine North, Melbourne, Victoria. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria. It is one of the most successful football clubs in Australia, being a two-time championship and four-time premiership winner in the now defunct National Soccer League (NSL).
The club is based in the western suburbs of Melbourne and draws much of its support from the Croatian Australian community. The club's identification with its Croatian roots remains strong. It is a regular participant in the Australian-Croatian Soccer Tournament.
Melbourne Knights plays matches at Knights Stadium, a 15,000 capacity venue (with approx 4,000 seated) in which the club has owned and operated since 1989. As well as fielding a senior men's side, the Knight's field a women's team as well as junior teams of all year levels.
Melbourne Knights FC was founded in 1953 as SC Croatia by a small group of Croatian immigrants in Melbourne's western suburbs. The club played its first match on 10 April 1953. The Knights became a member of the Victorian Soccer Federation in 1954, which saw the club join and compete in a league competition for the first time that same year in the newly created Victorian Provisional League. The club quickly moved up the state divisions and by the mid-1960s had become one of the strongest clubs in Victoria, winning the State League title in 1968, 1978 and 1979. In 1984 after a number of years of lobbying the Knights finally joined Australia's elite football competition, the National Soccer League. By the 1990s the club had become the premier soccer club in Australia as it made the NSL Grand Final 5 out of 6 seasons, winning it twice in 1994/95 and 1995/96. Following the disbanding of the NSL in 2004 the Knights dropped to the Victorian Premier League, making the Grand Final in 2008. Knights won the Dockerty Cup in 2014, when Tomislav Uskok scored a 121st minute goal to defeat South Springvale SC at Lakeside Stadium, the club's first piece of silverware in 18 years.
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