South Melbourne FC will be looking for a third straight PS4 NPL Victoria victory on Sunday afternoon when it hosts the Oakleigh Cannons at Lakeside Stadium.
Chris Taylor’s men went three points clear of the Bentleigh Greens at the top of the league table after dramatically defeating them 2-1 at Lakeside last Sunday. Goalkeeper Nikola Roganovic made two penalty saves in the final ten minutes to win the three points for the home side and put South on a two-game winning run.
After missing the Hume game the previous round, Captain Michael Eagar was back in the squad against Bentleigh last Sunday and came on as a late substitute. Iqi Jawadi was still missing from the squad, having not played a match for South since the win at Port Melbourne in early March. With Taylor rarely changing a winning team, it will be interesting to see if either will feature against Oakleigh.
Peter Tsolakis and Con Tangalakis have started their time as Oakleigh coaches very nicely, with three wins, three draws and only one loss from their opening seven league matches. This has the Cannons sitting nicely in fourth spot on the NPL Victoria ladder and a win at Lakeside will bring them to within one point of South at the top of the ladder.
SMFC and Oakleigh have played against each other every season since South returned to the State League in 2005 (see table below). The two sides have drawn each other twice in the Dockerty Cup (2013 and 2015), with South prevailing 3-0 both times. The 2015 meeting was in the Dockerty Cup final, which South won with a second-half double from Milos Lujic and a further goal from Leigh Minopoulos.
Sunday’s match kicks off at 4pm at Lakeside Stadium.
SMFC v Oakleigh Cannons – Head to Head (League & Finals)
Matches Played: 23
Wins (SMFC): 11
Wins (OCFC): 4
Draws: 8
First match: Oakleigh Cannons 0-1 SMFC (4 March 2005, Jack Edwards Reserve)
Last match: Oakleigh Cannons 2-0 SMFC (22 May 2015, Jack Edwards Reserve)
Biggest Winning Margin (SMFC): 3 goals (5-2 win, 27 July 2007, Lakeside Stadium)
Biggest Winning Margin (OCFC): 3 goals (3-0 win, 6 June 2014, Jack Edwards Reserve)
Most Goals in a Match (SMFC): 5 (5-2 win, 27 July 2007, Lakeside Stadium)
Most Goals in a Match (OCFC): 3 (3-0 win, 6 June 2014, Jack Edwards Reserve)
Biggest Finals Win (SMFC): None
Biggest Finals Win (OCFC): 1-0 (21 August 2011, Jack Edwards Reserve)
| NPL | Home | Away | Finals |
|
2005 |
0-1 | 1-0 | – |
|
2006 |
0-1 | 1-2 | – |
|
2007 |
5-2 | 1-1 | – |
|
2008 |
3-1 | 0-1 | – |
|
2009 |
0-0 | 1-1 | – |
|
2010 |
1-2 | 1-0 | – |
|
2011 |
1-0 | 2-1 | 0-1 |
|
2012 |
2-1 | 3-1 | – |
|
2013 |
2-1 | 2-1 | – |
|
2014 |
2-2 | 0-3 | – |
|
2015 |
1-0 | 0-2 | – |