South squeeze through against Malvern in state cup

Watched my second and third games of cup football today, after having watched Moreland City go down 1-0 in extra time to Hume City yesterday.

Today saw South's entry into the 2012 tournament, up against Malvern City, whom we had accounted for fairly easily a few months ago in pouring rain during the Hellenic Cup.

A much more polished performance from Malvern today. Nothing spectacular, but we were so half arsed, with most of the more fringe players taking part today not doing themselves any favours.

Saldaris in goals looked OK, and Marinos Gasparis looked hungry, harrassing and harrying in the midfield. But Fernando looked a little slack, and Gianni De Nittis probably didn't do himself any favours.

Dimi Hatzimouratis surely edged himself in front of Gianni in that regard, with the opening goal, a long range effort which smashed in under the crossbar. Malvern then equalised, deservedly so, after an old forgotten foe in Juan Nilo slid one in.

Thankfully Joe Keenan's cut back was met by Kyle Joryeff, and we held the lead until the end. The boys will need to play a lot better against Port Melbourne in the next round, to be held during the Queen's Birthday long weekend.

The second half of the double header was between Northcote and Morwell Pegasus. It was a pretty interesting game, and quite enjoyable after the slop we produced.

Pegasus had an early, possibly dubious penalty, which was saved - and the follow up shot from the rebound was very poor, straight at the keeper with almost the whole goal to aim at. Morwell kept beating Northcote's offside trap, eventually making it count, after a very nice build up in midfield released their striker into space, who hit a beautiful chip over the keeper.

Pegasus almost doubled their lead early in the second half, with the ball hitting the crossbar and coming down, but not crossing the line. Thereafter, Northcote dominated posession and territory, with Morwell defending in numbers, though clear cut chances were few and far between. Late on Northcote missed what looked like a sitter from inside the six yard box, their best chance of the game. Pegasus had a man sent off about 10 minutes from time I think, just outside the box.

Bit of cup romance for the tragics, with last season's cup winners, albeit a shadow of the team they were then, bundled out by a team who didn't even have a sponsor on their shirt.