Thursday, 10 May 2012 5:15 PM
By John Kyrou (Photo by Cindy Nitsos)
South Melbourne FC travels to Epping Stadium on Friday night to face Hume City, where it will be looking to record its first win in the Victorian Premier League since its second round fixture against the Oakleigh Cannons.
South goes into the match on the back of a highly disappointing 0-2 home loss against promoted Southern Stars last Friday night. Goals from Mark Leech and former South man Yanni Galanos were enough for the Stars to record a memorable victory and severely embarrass South in only its second Premier League match back at Lakeside Stadium in 2012. Further bad news for South is the fact that Joe Keenan will be missing for at least another week due to a hamstring strain, whilst right-back Tom Matthews will still be out of action at least for another month as he recovers from a leg injury. In more positive news, Rhodri Payne looks set for a recall in the starting eleven, whilst Marinos Gasparis and Kyle Joryeff had positive impacts off the substitutes’ bench last week and may be included in the starting line-up on Friday night.
Hume City go into the match in winning form after coming from 1-0 down to defeat Heidelberg United 2-1at Olympic Park last Sunday. That result lifted Hume to eighth spot on the VPL ladder, only two places behind South, with both sides locked on 7 points from five League matches in 2012. The Hume players that South will need to watch out for are Zoran Petrevski, Serdar Pir, Pece Siveski, Isiyan Erdogan and former South man Steven Pace, all of which are capable of causing damage. South will also be wary of the fact that in the corresponding fixture last season at Broadmeadows Valley Park, doubles to Richie Cardozo, Steven Weir and a goal from Fabio Dilizia gave Hume a resounding 5-0 victory over a 9-man South Melbourne side following the dismissals of Jessie Krncevic and Ljubo Milicevic in the first half.
Friday night’s match kicks off at 8:30pm at Epping Stadium.