Image: Graeme Furlong
The Melbourne Knights and Andrew Marth have parted ways with immediate effect midway through the 2017 season.
His departure, along with assistant Frank Juric, ends a five-year managerial spell at the club and follows a scoreless draw against the table-propping St Albans, with the Knights still occupying 12th place in the relegation play-off zone, their last win coming in Round 6.
Following a mixed but optimistic start to the season which included big victories over Bentleigh Greens and Port Melbourne – and the Knights hovering near the top six – a 3-0 defeat to Avondale in Round 7 marked the start of the side’s downwards spiral in form, currently suffering an eight-game league winless run plus an FFA Cup exit to NPL2 outfit Dandenong City.
Starting his playing career at Sunshine George Cross before joining the Knights in 1989, Marth eventually went on to have a near 30-year association with Somers Street in a playing and coaching capacity, ending his playing career as a club legend.
Over two separate stints at the Knights he went on to captain and player-coach the club, winning consecutive NSL titles in the mid-90s and featuring in over 250 league games. Marth also earned 16 caps for the Socceroos.
Having retired as a player in 2006, in mid-2012 he replaced Paul Magdic as the Knights’ coach.
Finishing second in the VPL in 2013, he led the club to a fourth placed finish in the first year of the NPL Victoria in 2014, also triumphing in the Dockerty Cup that year while embarking on a maiden FFA Cup run.
A fifth placed league finish followed in 2015 with an exit in the qualifying finals.
It was a much more difficult campaign in 2016, where a more youthful lineup struggled to make an impression against the top half of the table, however he was able to lead his side to a second FFA Cup campaign – the first to feature a home game at Knights Stadium – bowing out in the Round of 16 to Green Gully.
With the mid-season window opening soon, the club will have the opportunity to bolster its injury-plagued squad and regroup to try steer away from the relegation zone, sitting just a point behind 10th placed Kingston City and 11th placed Bulleen Lions with exactly half the season remaining.
Captain Ben Surey will assume player-coach duties for the club’s next game against Hume City.