Tuesday, 29 March 2005 10:57 AM
By Adam Woolcock
Left without a competitive game by a VPL rest week South Melbourne travelled to coach John Anastasiadis’ former club, Yarraville Glory, for a friendly match. Set against the backdrop of a day long Greek cultural festival at the Glory’s McIvor Reserve South fielded a lineup without several first team regulars, but still proved too strong for their State League Two opponents.
The Glory defence were under siege in the opening minutes, with South getting plenty of practice at set pieces. It was no surprise then that the scoring was opened from a corner. Ryan Dinse headed home in the 5th minute after the Yarraville keeper had tipped the ball onto the crossbar and the defence failed to clear. Sebastian Petrovic added a second in the 16th minute, and new Brazilian signing Fernando Moraes opened his account for the club after a quality move in the 36th.
Halftime score – South Melbourne 3, Yarraville Glory 0
The South coaching staff rung the changes at halftime and introduced Jesse Krncevic, Peter Koutsoupias, Gianni DeNittis and Steve Georgakakis. The Glory took advantage of this mass change of personnel and enjoyed their best spell of the match in the opening minutes of the second half. When they capitalised on a calamitous defensive error in the 50th minute and scored it looked as if they had lifted a notch. South saw the warning signs, though, and raised their game to match the opponents. From then on the match consisted of little more than a training run, with Yarraville rarely troubling the South back line – allowing several defenders to get forward and try to put their names on the scoresheet.
An avalanche of corners and free kicks finally paid off again in the 70th minute when the impressive Petrovic scored his second. A bullet Jesse Krncevic free kick hit the back of the net late in the game but when forced to retake it by the match official he couldn’t match his first strike. South finally rounded off the scoring in the 88th minute when a contentious call by the referees assistant let a clearly offside cross fall to Ryan Dinse and Gianni DeNittis who slid in at the same time, with DeNittis getting the vital last touch.
Fulltime score – South Melbourne 5, Yarraville Glory 1
Starting Lineup: Dimotropoulos (GK), DeVito, Dinse, Petrovic, Coveny, Natsioulas, Tsritsakis, Stefanou, O’Dor, Karavitis, Moraes