On Sunday afternoon, South Melbourne returned to Lakeside Stadium to host the Bulleen Lions. South was coming off a 2-1 away win to Kingston on Monday night, while Bulleen had been edged out 2-1 by ladder leaders Heidelberg and were desperate for three points. Chris Taylor made just one change from last Monday’s side; Luke Pavlou came into the starting 11 to replace the suspended Matthew Foschini.
South started off the game the stronger of the two teams and, like they did in their last game and found the back of the net early thanks to a Milos Luijc header in the eighth minute. South kept pushing on and in the 21st minute Marcus Schroen came very close to doubling the lead when his header went just wide. In the 35th minute, disaster struck for Bulleen when a misplaced back pass was quickly intercepted by Matt Millar who ran across the keeper and rolled the ball into the goal to give south a 2-0 lead. This would be Millar’s seventh goal of the league season and his second in as many weeks.
South took that score into the break and came in the second half still pushing for more goals. In the 50th minute, Luijc found himself on the end of another Bulleen back pass and buried his first one-on-one chance of the season to give south a 3-0 lead. After the goal, Taylor made his first change, with Jesse Daley making way for Liam McCormick. He also brought Stefan Zinni on for his second appearance and gave some game time to Andy Kecojevic.
South had several more great opportunities for a fourth goal with chances falling to Epifano and Schroen who were both denied by reflex saves from Bulleen keeper, Lewis Italiano. Kecejevic was teed up by a Milos Lujic header but couldn’t quite find the touch he needed to put away the close-range chance.
The game finished 3-0 to South who managed their fifth clean sheet in their last six league matches. All attention for now moves to their much anticipated cup match against Dandenong City on Wednesday night. Kick off at Lakeside Stadium is at 7.30pm.
South Melbourne 3 (Milos Lujic 8, 50, Matt Millar 35)
Bulleen Lions 0