Wednesday, 16 June 2010 10:58 PM
By John Kyrou
South Melbourne FC will be looking to finally secure a win at Green Gully Reserve on Saturday when Vaughan Coveny’s side travel to Keilor to face Green Gully. A win will see South overtake Gully and secure a position in the top five, whilst a loss could see South slide as far down as tenth on the VPL ladder.
South will head into the game brimming with confidence having secured a hard-fought but thoroughly deserved 0-1 victory against the Bentleigh Greens last Friday night. Fernando De Moraes’ winning goal put the midfielder level with David Gorrie in tenth position on South’s all-time highest goal scorers in League competition, with both players having scored 44 times in Victorian League competition. The Futsalroo will be hoping to score his tenth goal of the season on Saturday not only in order to claim tenth place outright over Gorrie, but to also give South the best chance possible to secure the three points.
Green Gully will be a difficult opponent to overcome on Saturday, with the Cavaliers having not lost to South at home for nearly 24 years. The last time South beat Green Gully at Green Gully Reserve was on 8 September 1986, when goals from Bobby Russell and Manny Anezakis secured a 0-2 win for the away side. Since that day, South had failed to score at Green Gully Reserve until a De Moraes penalty and Gianni De Nittis’ late volley broke the drought in the controversial 2-2 draw on 18 April 2009.
In the last match played between the two sides (21 March 2010), two expertly taken goals by De Moraes and heroic goalkeeping by Peter Zois secured South a 2-1 victory at Lakeside Stadium. Green Gully has constantly been an extremely difficult opponent to face since the two sides resumed hostilities in 2005 and Saturday’s match against them will be no different.
Saturday’s match kicks off at 3pm at Green Gully Reserve.