Monday, 29 June 2009 1:17 PM
By John Kyrou | Photo by Craig Varty
South Melbourne FC has climbed back up to second position on the league table following a comprehensive 4-0 win against the Whittlesea Zebras on Sunday afternoon at Bob Jane Stadium.
The home side wore a special heritage strip (white with a red V on the front) as a tribute to the first few years of South Melbourne Hellas’ existence when this shirt was worn before the change in colours to blue and white.
South entered the match on the back of a disappointing away draw against the Melbourne Knights and having dropped from second to fifth position due to other results on the weekend. Whittlesea entered in a contrasting position, with the Zebras deep in relegation danger and needing a confidence-boosting win.
South began the match well and opened the scoring after only five minutes. Left back Rhodri Payne’s long ball set Vaughan Coveny through one-on-one with the Zebras keeper and the forward kept his cool and calmly lobbed the ball over the advancing keeper and into the back of the net.
The home side remained in complete control of the match but were unable to score the killer second goal until 10 minutes before halftime. The ball bounced kindly for Fernando de Moraes around the edge of the area and the midfielder hit a lovely shot that flew into the top left corner of the goal.
The match should have been over as a contest shortly after the halftime break when Francesco Stella intercepted a ball played across goals and was through one-on-one with the keeper. However Stella chose to round the keeper and shoot instead of placing a shot into the corner of the goal and as a result was quickly dispossessed.
Goran Zoric ended any feint hopes of a Zebras fight back when he added South’s third for the afternoon. Captain Rama Tavsancioglu made an excellent run down the right side and his cut-back found an unmarked Zoric who had no problems in putting the ball in the back of the net.
Zoric doubled his tally five minutes later and made the score 4-0 when he snuck down the right side and was supplied an excellent through-ball by Fernando. Zoric hit a first time shot that flew across the ball and into the corner of the goal.
The league has a catch-up round next week so both sides have a break. South opens round 17 with an away trip to Kevin Bartlett Reserve to take on the Richmond Eagles. The match kicks off at 8:30pm on the 10th of July. Whittlesea has another away match, this time against Heidelberg at Olympic Village.