South literally squeeze through - South Melbourne 1 St Albans 0

It wasn't pretty, again. Stephen Weir opened his South Melbourne account, by beating the offside trap, squeezing the ball underneath the Dinamo keeper, and having the presence of mind to follow up the shot which had hit the post and tap it in, instead of going off on a premature celebration.

The rest of the game is hardly worth talking about. An atrocious crowd, numerous botched chances to St Albans, including one memorable howler where the ball went in exactly the opposite direction of where the striker intended, and the odd occasion where South stuffed up what were meant to be gimme goals. The replay may also show that St Albans may have been hard done by with a couple of penalty decisions for handball, but they were at the opposite end of the ground to me.

Kliment Taseski was probably our best. Zaim Zeneli showed what you get when you have even a merely adequate and stable presence in between the sticks (though he was better than that), while Fernando De Moraes came off the bench again and looked distressingly un-Nando-esque by demonstrating poor touch on several occasions. Here's hoping he's back to his normal self next week in what will be his 150th appearance for South (League, State Cup and Singapore Cup).

And yet, somehow, still third with four games to go, and a good opportunity to get a double chance provided we keep winning. And despite how poorly we are playing, there are perhaps only one or two sides - Hume and Heidelberg - who I think we are outrightly inferior to if we play to our best.

Next Game
Against Richmond, but not a Friday night, as the FFV has deemed their lights as not being up to scratch. So instead, it'll be a Saturday afternoon - disappointing some, but not me, as I prefer Keven Bartlett Reserve (and most grounds, to be truthful) in the daytime.