Monday, 16 May 2011 10:23 AM
By John Kyrou
South Melbourne FC continued its 25 year winless hoodoo at Green Gully Reserve when it gave away three sloppy goals to lose 3-2 against Green Gully on Saturday afternoon. The loss was South’s second in a row and drops the team out of the top five.
South travelled to Gully boosted by the return of captain Steven O’Dor, centre-half partner Ljubo Milicevic, Jesse Krncevic and Trent Waterson, with Sebastian Petrovic returning from injury to take his place on the substitutes’ bench. Despite this, South still found itself a goal down very early in the match when former South player Hamid Basma scored a scrappy goal following a defensive mix-up. To the away side’s credit, it replied almost straight away when Kyle Joryeff got to Krncevic’s centred ball before goalkeeper Nikola Roganovic and was subsequently tripped by the custodian, resulting in a penalty that Fernando De Moraes had no problem in converting.
The second half started in the exact same fashion as the first, with Gully scoring early before a South equalising goal minutes later. The home side made the score 2-1 through Mile Medjedovic, who pounced on more scrappy South defending, however their lead was only to last around five minutes before Joryeff was again fouled in the penalty area and De Moraes again sent Roganovic the wrong way with the subsequent spot kick.
The game’s defining moment came when a Daniel Vasilevski corner fell to Krncevic who hit a ferocious shot that smashed Roganovic’s crossbar before falling to Milicevic, whose quick shot forced an excellent save from Roganovic. That was the opportunity for South to finally break its Green Gully Reserve hoodoo and take a 2-3 lead, however, it was not to be and there a sense that those two missed opportunities would come back to haunt the away team.
Those concerns were again proven in the 77th minute, when South gave away the ball on the left wing, allowing Gully to regain possession. South goalkeeper Abdelhadi Deroune misjudged the subsequent cross and was left flapping as Matthew Sanders got his head to the ball and guided it into the back of the net, despite Rhodri Payne’s best efforts to clear the ball off the line. In the end, South had shot itself in the foot despite arguably playing its best game of football at Green Gully Reserve since returning to the Victorian Premier League in 2005.
In next week’s round, South Melbourne FC hosts the Springvale White Eagles at John Cain Memorial Park in what is now an absolute must-win match. Kick-off is at 3:00pm next Sunday afternoon.
FINAL SCORE: GREEN GULLY 3-2 SOUTH MELBOURNE (HT: 1-1)
Goal Scorers:
1-0: Hamid Basma (5′)
1-1: Fernando De Moraes (11’pk)
2-1: Mile Medjedovic (53′)
2-2: Fernando De Moraes (58’pk)
3-2: Matthew Sanders (77′)
Green Gully
1. Nikola ROGANOVIC, 2. Daniel JONES, 4. Cameron DRAKE, 7. Jeffrey FLEMING, 8. Jason HAYNE, 9. Brent FISHER, 10. Graham HOCKLESS, 15. Hamid BASMA, 16. Mile MEDJEDOVIC, 17. Andy VARGAS, 19. Johnathon MUNOZ
Subs: 23. Michael O’FARRELL, 6. Michael ANDERSON, 11. Pasquale VIZZARI, 12. Mathew SANDERS, 14. Simon STOREY
South Melbourne FC
1. Abdelhadi DEROUNE, 3. Rhodri PAYNE, 4. Steven O’DOR, 5. Daniel VASILEVSKI, 6. Steven TOPALOVIC, 11. Jesse KRNCEVIC, 13. Ljubo MILICEVIC, 15. Fernando DE MORAES (23. Sebastian PETROVIC 90+1′), 16. Trent WATERSON, 18. Marinos GASPARIS (33. Bobby RUSSELL 76′), 25. Kyle JORYEFF (14. Kamal IBRAHIM 82′)
SMFC Man of the Match: Steven Topalovic
Venue: Green Gully Reserve
Date: Saturday 14 May 2011