South Melbourne FC can create history when it travels to Broadmeadows Valley Park to play against Hume City on Sunday afternoon. Three points for Chris Taylor’s side will break a Club record for the most consecutive away wins at the beginning of a League season (four wins).
South goes into the game having won their opening three National Premier League matches in 2014, with the most recent being the incredible 3-5 victory against Green Gully at Green Gully Reserve last Saturday afternoon. Centre-forward Milos Lujic scored a hat-trick in the opening 26 minutes of the match, with Jamie Reed and substitute Leigh Minopoulos scoring the other two goals. Despite the excellent result, Taylor was rightly concerned about the manner in which his side allowed Green Gully back in the match (with South having been 0-4 up at halftime) and will demand a much better defensive performance on Sunday.
Hume City head into Sunday’s match in indifferent form, having won their opening League fixture against Pascoe Vale (3-0 on 16 March) before suffering consecutive losses against Werribee City (1-2 on 30 March) and Dandenong Thunder (0-1 on 5 April). Sandwiched in between all of these results was a strong 5-0 victory against Casey Comets FC in the fourth round of the Dockerty Cup (22 March), so it is certainly fair to say that Lou Acevski’s side has had a mixed start to 2014. However with experienced Premier League players like Izzy Erdogan, Shane Rexhepi, Nick Hegarty, Nick Marinos and Richie Cardozo – plus former South man Kliment Taseski – on their roster, Hume will be a very tough side to defeat on Sunday.
In the corresponding fixture played last season (Sunday 19 May 2013), Hume City defeated South 3-2 at Broadmeadows Valley Park. Turhan Sumbul opened the scoring (25’) and Atilla Ofli doubled the home side’s advantage (28’) before Dimi Hatzimouratis pulled a goal back for South right on the halftime break with a penalty kick (45+1’). Shaun Kelly levelled the match at 2-2 with a strong header (58’) before Hume substitute Sean Canham won the match for the home side (81’) to complete the scoring.
The two sides have met at Broadmeadows Valley Park on four occasions and the honours are tied at two wins apiece. South’s best win at the venue was 6-0 on Sunday 25 April 2010 (with Gianni De Nittis scoring four goals), with Hume’s best win being 5-0 on Sunday 17 April 2011.
Sunday’s match kicks off at 3PM at Broadmeadows Valley Park.