Monday, 20 January 2003 12:00 AM
South Melbourne’s poor form in Western Australia continued on the weekend as the Albert Park Club went down 2 – 0 to a solid Perth line up. Despite the loss, South Melbourne remain in third position, now only four points behind Newcastle United who drew to Wollongong last night.
Danny Wright’s squad controlled most of the match as Perth sat back after German import Gumprecht scored a wonderful volley to put the home side in front. South continued playing some fluent football as the Glory sat waiting for the counter punch.
South’s best chance came in the 35th minute through Peter Buljan who got onto the end of a through ball, surpassing two Glory players and beating Petkovic. Unfortunately the South striker hit the frame of the wood work. Zeljko Susa also had a glorious opportunity but his first chance let him down as he marched inside the penalty area.
Wright was obviously disappointed with the result but was happy with the way his players persistence throughout Saturday nights Round 18 encounter.
“We realised that we will be playing Perth in the Finals Series and learnt a couple of lessons from the match. The players learnt that Perth are beatable and that we exposed some chinks in their armour which we look forward exposing that next time we go up”.
“We weren’t too disappointed with the result. We came through the match unscaved, looking forward to the next home game, where a good win will set us up for the game against Olympic in two weeks,” says Wright.
South Melbourne takes on Wollongong this week in a match of most importance for Albert Park Club. Newcastle tackle Olympic Sharks this Friday night which could see South come closer to second spot or pull away from the bottom half of the top six.