Monday, 28 June 2010 10:59 AM
By John Kyrou
Dandenong Thunder has emerged victorious over South Melbourne FC on Sunday afternoon at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex. After South had clawed its way back from a 0-2 deficit to level the scores at 2-2, a penalty awarded to the Thunder for an alleged handball on defender Steven O’Dor won the away side the three points.
Both clubs went into the match desperate for three points in order to steer further away from the relegation zone as well as push for finals contention. Dandenong flew out of the blocks early and stunned South with two goals in the opening ten minutes. The opening goal came after seven minutes when South defender Rhodri Payne’s mistimed chest pass fell straight to Jamie Reed, who from a short distance out from goal fired an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net. Three minutes later the Thunder were two goals ahead when South’s defenders fell asleep at the back post and Scott Bulloch was lurking to tap home past Peter Zois.
Payne nearly made up for his earlier error by making an excellent run into the area before firing a low shot that beat Dandenong goalkeeper Stuart Webster but hit his near post and stayed out. Kyle Joryeff then missed a glorious opportunity to open South’s account when he was put through one-on-one with Webster but he shot wide. Just before halftime, Dandenong’s Luke Sherborn was given a straight red card for a poor challenge on Daniel Vasilevski.
South were more desperate after the break and scored in the 60th minute, after Joryeff pounced on the loose ball following a mistake in the Dandenong defence and put the ball past Webster to halve the deficit. South continued to press forward in numbers and equalised four minutes later when Joryeff’s corner flew past over sea of bodies to the back post where O’Dor was on hand to tap home. With the scores level, 25 minutes left to play and an extra man on the field, South had suddenly put themselves into a possible winning position. This was to change dramatically by the time the full time whistle was blown.
Dandenong had still been looking dangerous on the counter-attack and won a corner shortly after kicking off following O’Dor’s goal. The in-swinging corner looked to be comfortably dealt with by the South defence before the referee awarded a penalty to Dandenong due to O’Dor allegedly handling the ball. Reed put away the spot kick for his second goal of the afternoon and the Thunder’s third.
South played out the game with the majority of possession but could not find a way to score again. Webster made some outstanding saves and his defenders did a great job in front of him. During injury time, South captain Rama Tavsancioglu was sent off for allegedly bringing down a Thunder player as last man.
South now looks towards its catch-up match against Altona Magic at John Cain Memorial Park next Sunday at 3pm.
FINAL SCORE: SOUTH MELBOURNE 2-3 DANDENONG THUNDER (HT: 0-2)
South Melbourne:
Peter Zois, Rhodri Payne, Steven O’Dor, Daniel Vasilevski (Marinos Gasparis 78′), Joe Keenan, Carl Recchia, Rama Tavsancioglu, Fernando De Moraes (Joseph Youssef 15′), Kyle Joryeff, James Stefanou (Hamid Basma 74′), Sebastian Petrovic
(Goal scorers: Kyle Joryeff 60′, Steven O’Dor 64′)
Dandenong Thunder:
Stuart Webster, Levent Osman, Shane Rexhepi, Aron Wilford, Luke Sherborn, Ben Starosta, Jeffrey Bright, Ryan Davidson, Geoffrey Kellaway, Scott Bulloch, Jamie Reed (Veton Korcarevski 85′)
(Goal scorers: Jamie Reed 7′, 66′ pk, Scott Bulloch 10′)
SMFC Man of the Match: Joseph Youssef
Venue: Kingston Heath Soccer Complex
Date: Sunday 27 June 2010
Crowd: 1,000
