Thursday, 4 August 2011 8:49 PM
The Elimination Final has come a week early as South Melbourne FC and Northcote City face off on Sunday afternoon with a finals berth at stake. Northcote will replace South in the top five should it win, whilst South needs to avoid defeat in order to confirm a finals spot. With the game being a South home match, the Club has switched the venue from John Cain Memorial Park to SS Anderson Reserve in Port Melbourne.
South come into the game in winning form, having recorded two wins in a row against tough opposition in Hume City and Dandenong Thunder. Last weekend’s 0-1 triumph at George Andrews Reserve was particularly impressive, with the side scoring in the first half before grinding out the rest of the match and forcing the result to give it a great chance of qualifying for the finals. Anything less than a victory would have seen South come into this weekend’s game against Northcote needing to win, instead it has given the Club a greater chance of qualifying for the finals as a draw will also suffice.
Northcote also comes into Sunday’s game in winning form, having recorded three wins in a row with the most recent being a strong 3-0 victory against Bentleigh last Saturday afternoon. More disturbingly for South, Northcote has an excellent result against the Blues, with two wins and a draw from three matches. The chief architect of Northcote’s success over South has been Trent Rixon, who has enjoyed six goals against the Club in those three games, with the most recent being a hat-trick in the 5-0 drubbing of South early on this season on Sunday 8 May. Whilst Northcote thoroughly deserved to win on that occasion, South had many of its starting eleven missing and Sunday’s match will no doubt be much closer than that. One key player missing for South in that 5-0 loss was Jesse Krncevic, who has scored eight goals from 16 Premier League matches this season, including two goals in the last two matches. Both Rixon and Krncevic will be central to the result on Sunday; whichever team can manage to contain them will go a long way to getting the result they need to qualify for finals.
To add more spice to Sunday’s game, Fernando De Moraes will make his 150th Premier League appearance for South, whilst vice-captain Carl Recchia will play his 50th match for the Club, which includes NSL, VPL, Mirabella Cup and Singapore Cup competitions.
Incredibly, South can still finish as Minor Premiers should it defeat Northcote and other results go its way. There is no doubt all spectators will be nervously watching Sunday’s game at Anderson Reserve and with all games kicking off at 15:00 that day, there will be a lot of interest in other results occurring should South win.
Ladder heading into the final round:
Rank
Team
P
W
D
L
F
A
GD
Points
1
Hume City
23
12
6
5
46
28
18
42
2
Oakleigh
23
13
3
7
40
28
12
42
3
Heidelberg
23
12
7
4
52
23
29
40
4
G Gully
23
12
4
7
46
23
23
40
5
SMFC
23
12
4
7
36
30
6
40
6
Northcote
23
11
5
7
58
34
24
38
South will qualify for the finals should it avoid defeat against Northcote
South will miss the finals should Northcote defeat them on Sunday
South will finish Minor Premiers if:
* It defeats Northcote
* Hume City loses to Melbourne Knights
* Oakleigh loses to Dandenong Thunder
* Heidelberg doesn’t win against Springvale
* Green Gully doesn’t win against Bentleigh
