Sturm und Drang - South Melbourne 3 Hume City 1

After everything that has happened this week, let alone this season, it was nice to see the under 21s again. And they didn't disappoint, taking top spot from Hume by beating them 1-0, after holding out against a strong wind in the first half. That a certain former South youth player with red hair, who crossed over to Hume halfway through the season missed a sitter to level the scores must have made the win just that little bit sweeter.

Somehow, we're second on the table. Of course it helps when other teams drop points, as Oakleigh did today against Richmond, where Ricky Diaco had a penalty saved in the second half with his side trailing 2-1; and it also helps when sides have games in hand to play, such as Oakleigh, Heidelberg and Northcote.

2-0 and down to 10 men as Lou Acevksi gets sent off. Photo: Cindy Nitsos

But you can also make your own luck. When Stephen Weir's free kick deflected off the wall into the space in front of Hume City substitute goalkeeper Kenny Gerohristodoulou, it was Jesse Krncevic, back today after a long spell on the sidelines with suspension, who reacted fastest and swung the ball into the corner. That was 3-0, and more or less the game wrapped up.

It wasn't a good day for the Hume goalkeepers in general, as first Daniel Dragicevic slid the ball past Lou Acevski from a tight angle, into basically the only space available to him; and then when Sebastian Petrovic headed home South's second soon after, Acevski was given a straight red card for kicking a ball into a South player.

Five different ways to stand in a wall. Photo: Cindy Nitsos.

Later, Gerohristodoulou, whose choice of shorts left little to the freeballin' imagination, pushed a South fan who was giving him back the ball for a goal kick, which fired up the crowd behind his goal. Hume City had a bad day at the office, but handled their emotions poorly. South by contrast had its best performance for some months now, without Tom Matthews, Steven O'Dor and even Joe Montemurro on the bench.

Discounting the most recent VTC match, it was the first time we had scored two goals in a match since the round 13 loss against Green Gully, and the first time we'd scored three since that fabulous 15 minute spell against Melbourne Knights all the way back in round six. We had several chances to add to our tally, before taking the foot off the pedal in the last 20 minutes or so and allowing Richie Cardozo to net a consolation goal for Hume.

Daniel Dragicevic leads the celebrations after scoring the opener. Photo: Cindy Nitsos.

After the first goal, someone ripped a flare at a South league game for the first time in about four years. There goes $500, or $1500, or whatever it is now, and another reason for the FFV to get on our back, like we needed one. I wonder if the perpetrator realised that the FFV were filming the game for their live stream? Somewhere at South there must be a communal self-destruct button that I haven't found yet. When I do find it, I'll either rip the bloody thing out, or press it with such conviction that the earth opens up and swallows us whole, leaving scant trace of our existence.

And then there  was the moment when myself and Ian Syson were discussing getting someone like Southpole to provide a guest lecture for Victoria University's 'Poetry and Poetics' class, to discuss the process of oral compositions, non-literary working class adaptations and such. Clarendon Corner's rewording of Frozen Tears 'South Melbourne', was just tremendous, bitter, resentful and yet full of wit.

Did I mention that we're second on the ladder? Heinous, isn't it.