Thursday, 26 May 2011 9:57 AM
South Melbourne FC travel to Kingston Heath Soccer Complex on Friday night to take on the Bentleigh Greens in another must-win fixture. South will want to win consecutive matches, hit positive goal difference and consolidate a spot in the top five, whilst the Greens will be looking for three points to keep up with the chasing pack that is pushing for a finals position.
South goes into Friday’s match in mixed form, with South struggling in the 1-0 victory against third-last Springvale White Eagles last Sunday following a lean month that saw the side win only one point in four Victorian Premier League matches and concede 13 goals in the process. In more positive news, transfer-window signings Tom Matthews, Daniel Dragicevic, Jean-Charles Dubois and Junior Camargo all made their debuts for the Club against Springvale and it was Dragicevic that set up Jesse Krncevic for the winning goal with a cross. Matthews was the only new signing not to come from the Melbourne Knights and the former Green comes up against his old club on Friday night.
Bentleigh are currently outside the top five but have been undefeated in their past seven Victorian Premier League matches and undefeated since former South Championship player and coach John Anastasiadis took over as coach following the departure of Andy O’Dell. The most recent result for Bentleigh was a 3-2 victory against the Victorian Training Centre on Tuesday night at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex, with the Greens coming back from 0-2 down to claim victory. Important players for South to watch out for will be goalkeeper Peter Gavalas, Wayne Wallace and Alex Rojas, with the last two players scoring goals against the VTC on Tuesday.
In the last meeting between the two sides earlier this year on the 6th March, an early header by Sebastian Petrovic (2′) and a wonderful individual goal by Kyle Joryeff (38′) was enough for South to earn a 2-1 win despite the second-half dismissal of Kliment Taseski. In the corresponding fixture last season at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex on 11 June, a rocket from Fernando De Moraes with five minutes to go was enough for South to win 1-0 in a scrappy affair on a wet and cold winter’s night.
Friday night’s match kicks off at 8:15pm at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex.