South Melbourne found the net five times in its second friendly against Frankston Pines on Wednesday night at Monterey Reserve. Milos Lujic and Andy Brennan scored doubles whilst Iqi Jawadi scored from a superb strike on the edge of the area to record the 5-0 result.
The match started with Chris Maynard in goal being the only senior player on the field. Head Coach Chris Taylor took a squad of twenty-two down to Frankston including three players from last years Under 20 squad and eight under trial. Yanni Avradmidis was a commanding presence at centre-back whilst fellow Under 20 squad members Ryan Babare and Eric Hauser demonstrated their experience playing together linking well through the mid-field to provide opportunities up front. There were chances in front of goal at both ends of the pitch however neither side was able to capitalise.
In the second half, Taylor switched by entire line-up similar to last week. The squad comprised the senior list and was bolstered by the addition of Cody Martindale who scored in Saturdays friendly with Dandenong City. The pace of play lifted and the passing more reflective of a typical South match. One touch passes and the use of both wings quickly saw the forward combination of Milos Lujic and Andy Brennan on the receiving end of some classy play from Leigh Minopolous and Nick Epifano.
A dominant ten minutes of football started when 2014 NPL triple award winner Milos Lujic found himself when an open penalty area and easily put his strike past the keeper to opening the scoring. Shortly after Andy Brennan lobbed the keeper from the left wing only to have the ball cleared off the line with centimetres to spare. Next it was Iqi Jawadi who added his name to the goal scorers column of the match record when he hammered a right foot shot into the corner of the net to double the South lead. Just two minutes Lujic was in the action again on the end of a pass just a few yards out securing his brace and putting South up by three.
New signing Bonel Obradovic was consistent force through the midfield and high work ethnic was matched by Andy Brennan in the front third. Brennan was unlucky earlier on, but just over ten minutes from time he made a run off the right flank into the area and his powerful shot sailed into the back of the net. A further three minutes later Brennan found himself unmarked at the back post as the ball came over the top of the keeper and a few defenders for an easy header across the line. Brennan securing his second brace in as many games.
The remaining nine minutes played out with the back four of Tim Mala, Michael Eager, Brad Norton and Cody Martindale only lightly challenged. Full time sounded with the 5-0 score line result.
After the match, smfc.com.au spoke with goal scorer Iqi Jawadi about the match. “It was a good game. We played well, scored a lot of goals, which is a good sign for pre-season. All the players are doing well, everyone’s fit” he said. Looking forward to the rest of the year, Jawadi was clear on his ambition saying “I want to score a goal, my first for South Melbourne”.
Chris Taylor also shared some time after the match and spoke about the preparation for the season kicking off in four weeks. Asked about how the process is going, he said “it’s a little bit different the way we are doing it this year and not having our facilities has made it a bit difficult. It’s coming together all right. The fact is still we only have eleven or twelve players on the pitch. Fairly please with the way its progressing. It’s just a matter of finalising things and the issues with a couple of boys playing youth league football”.
South Melbourne has a number of friendly matches schedule the next of which is on Saturday 17th January against Langwarrin. The matches are at Lawton Reserve, Langwarrin with the Under 20s kicking off at 1pm and the Seniors at 3pm.