Day: June 26, 2017

On Sunday afternoon South Melbourne hosted the Oakleigh Cannons in round 19 of the 2017 Victorian National Premier League season. South Melbourne came into the fixture on a short turnaround, after playing Bentleigh Greens in the Dockerty Cup semi-final only 60 hours earlier.

South changed its starting eleven going into this league fixture, welcoming back Milos Lujic and Nick Epifano from injury to replace David Moreno and Leigh Minopoulos. Oakleigh were coming into this match off the back of a 2-0 away win against Heidelberg United, and looking to get a win to keep their finals hopes alive.

South started the contest the stronger. Epifano cut out a pass in midfield and knocked the ball forward to Matthew Millar who got himself into a one on one position with Oakleigh goalkeeper John Honos; unfortunately Millar slid his shot into the post. Oakleigh then created two half chances, with both shots from outside the penalty area going high and wide of the goal.

Oakleigh then carved out their best chance of the first 20 minutes of the game, a one on one opportunity falling to Giueseppe Marafioti whose shot was denied by Nicola Roganovic. Gaining confidence, Oakleigh continued to apply pressure on the South defence and create half chances. Against the run of play, Epifano played a ball into the area for Luijc who fired the ball over the bar. Just before halftime Goran Zoric had a chance to send Oakleigh into the break with the lead but his rebounded shot went wide of Roganovic’s far post.

Chris Taylor opted to make a change at half time, with Stefan Zinni coming on replacing Marcus Schroen. South came out well in the second half and instantly lifted the tempo of the game. They nevertheless had to bide their time in creating a clear cut opportunity. In the 68th minute that time arrived, when Luijc played a through ball in on goal for Zinni, whose first touch let him down and with Honos managing to smother the ball. In that sequence of play, Honos copped an accidental boot to the face that led to a seven minute delay in play as the Oakleigh medics patched Honos up so he could return to play.

Once play got back underway, Brad Norton played Epifano through on goal; Epifano did well to get into the box and draw a foul from Oakleigh defender Janiel to earn South a penalty with ten minutes remaining. Luijc stepped up for South and fired his penalty straight down the middle, giving South a 1-0 lead while bagging his 11th goal of the league season.

Oakleigh would push forward desperately to try and salvage something out of the game after South scored. The 4th official’s board showed seven minutes of additional time that left all South fans bitting their fingernails. Epifano would come off late in the game replaced by Tim Mala. Oakleigh had a corner right at the end of the game and it looked to the naked eye that Oakleigh had scored instead it was an Oakleigh player who went rolling into the back of the net and not the ball, and South would clear and hold out for a 1-0 win to keep them top of the league with a game in hand.

South now move on to play an up and down Green Gully at Lakeside Stadium next Sunday.

South Melbourne 1 (Luijc 80Pen)
Oakleigh Cannons 0

South Melbourne is now sitting four points clear of Calder United on top of the table after their emphatic 9-2 victory over Senior NTC at Lakeside Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

In an entertaining first half, the girls found themselves on the back foot after a Varley thunderbolt from long range looped over the head of Ramsay and into the back of the net in the fifth minute.

However, the girls were able to find the equaliser following a Greiser header inside the area in the 15th minute.

Eliadis was unlucky not to score South’s second for the afternoon after missing a penalty in the 18th minute.

Ayres was beginning to look dangerous up front for South, finding her first for the afternoon after her long range shot trickled into the back of the net in the 26th minute.

It continued to rain goals in the first half for South led by Melina Ayres who was able to poke it into the back of the net inside the box courtesy of a Medwin cross in the 28th minute.

Ayres was looking unstoppable for South, with the young superstar able to get hold of the ball following her missed penalty to score inside the area in the last couple of minutes of the first half as the girls held a commanding 4-1 lead at half-time.

South continued to dominate in the second half, with Ayres adding to Senior NTC’s woes with a shot inside the area finding the back of the net in the 59th minute.

Martineau was able to find her first for the afternoon just minutes later, with a shot from close range into the back of the net as the girls held a 7-1 lead in the 62nd minute.

South continued to dominate on the scoreboard, with Ayres poking the ball from inside the box into the back of the net in the 77th minute to score her 25th goal for the season.

In what was a miserable day for Senior NTC, Varley was able to score a consolation goal for the visitors and her second for the afternoon with another thunderbolt from long range in the 89th minute.

Eliadis was finally able to score her first for the afternoon to make up for her missed penalty in the first half, with a shot from close range finding the back of the net in the 92nd minute as the girls secured their seventh straight win.

The girls will now shift their focus to Geelong Galaxy United when the two teams meet at Banyul Warri Reserve on Saturday afternoon.