South Melbourne FC was left frustrated by a resolute ten man Kingston City on Monday night, going down 1-0 in a tight encounter at the Grange Reserve.
Kingston, who conceded late equaliser last week, started on the front foot and capitalized on their first chance of the game in the 7th minute. Damian Iaconis cut in off the left wing a placed a low, curling shot into the bottom right corner.
South worked into the game as the half wore on and came within inches of scoring 28 minutes, when Marcus Schroen released Billy Konstantinidis, but the imposing striker’s shot was palmed wide.
After being 1-0 down at the break, South came out with far more urgency in the second half. The major talking point of the game came in the 59th when Alex Caniglia cynically brought down Pep Marafioti to receive his second yellow card.
The ten men of Kingston defended admirably, but South finally started to penetrate in the latter stages of the half and created a glut of chances in the last fifteen minutes.
The breakthrough almost came in 79th minute when Billy Konstantinidis was slipped through but crashed his shot against the cross-bar.
After several other narrow misses, the stage was set for a last gasp equaliser and Marcus Schroen was agonizingly close to being the hero.
The attacking midfielder had two close-range headers incredibly saved deep into stoppage time as ultimately it wasn’t to be South’s night.
The 1-0 loss sees South slide to 9th before a must win Friday night clash away to Pascoe Vale, Kingston meanwhile rise to 10th.