Now With 30% Less Shrugging of Shoulders Than A Regular Blog Post - Northcote City 0 South Melbourne 1

How much attention did I pay to yesterday's match? I can't remember. I remember a bloke with a big blue Greek chocolate wrapper in his shirt pocket. I remember two dimmies and a potato cake. I remember South getting hammered for large periods of the game, and relying on counter attacks, in a neat role reversal from the last time we played. I also remember feeling a smidgen better our season, and that perhaps I should've taken on board the feelings of one of the anonymous comments people who said we were going to win (even though their score was wrong). Can you believe we beat Northcote, at Northcote? Scary, no?

A Comment On The Relationship Between South's Supporters And Players
Krusty: Anybody here have herpes? Huh? Huh? [No one answers] You people are the worst audience I've ever seen.
Man: You're the worst comedian we've ever seen!
Krusty: Oh, great! Well, we'll just sit here silently for the next ninety minutes.
Man: Fine with us.

Clarendon Corner
Genius idea mooted yesterday. Instead of CC vs OM21 (as was the old, short lived end of season tradition), we should have what's left of CC vs the actual South squad. Someone make this happen!

Everyone Hates Brad Norton
Not the most popular player among a certain of section of South supporters, he managed to score what looked like a pretty legit goal yesterday - only for it to be taken away by an offside call that befuddled many of the behind the goals crew. Was it offside? I don't know. For all his faults, he's pinched a crucial goal here and there.

Greek Singers
Try so hard to get rid of the effnik stigma and then you get some Greek singer (never heard of him, 'something' Melas) to toss the coin. Just bring out the goats and dancing groups again, get it over and done with.

Hawthorn Invading Lakeside
Watching channel 10 news today (it was on when I got home, OK?) and saw Hawthorn players running around a familiar venue, though it was named as 'Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre'. No idea what that was about.

Neil Armstrong (with apologies to Neil, his family, and the friends and family of the deceased person who was being honoured at Northcote yesterday)
I don't even know where to begin or how to relate this story. As we walked into the ground before the reserves, there was a minute's silence taking place. We didn't know who it was for, so when Steve from Broady asked the question, I answered probably Neil Armstrong. He seemed a bit surprised by this? Did Neil die? Yeah, was reported this morning. After a bit more chat, it turns out that Steve from Broady though I was talking about South's own Jimmy Armstrong. Then somehow, his brain fade continuing even after we established what I was talking about, he asked, 'did he (that is, Neil) used to come to South games?' What can you do in such a situation, except laugh, while still berating him for his utter stupidity.

Next Match
Not this week. Cup final is on at Lakeside between Port Melbourne and Dandenong Thunder. Might head down there. Might not. Then Bentleigh Greens for our final home match of the season Sunday week. Step 2 of 7 in our must win at all costs to win the title campaign.

Ross Aloisi (Cool Story Bro Department)
Walking towards John Cain at about 1:00, some blokes with FFA gear trot across our path towards one of the nearby fields. One of the blokes has this exchange with me

Bloke: Are South playing today?
Me: Yep.
Bloke: I thought they played last night.
Me: Nup.

Thrilling stuff. Later on Gains and Steve from Broady inform me that was Ross Aloisi, reaffirming how out of touch I am. If it was John Aloisi, would have congratulated him for bleeding the A-League out of a few million while doing fuck all for it. Then again, probably not.

Take This Job and and Shove It! Department
You get to see a fair few dummy spits in the dregs of state league 2 north west reserves. And there were a few to choose from last Saturday at Altona East vs Preston. The bloke who got subbed (after 70 minutes, mind) and took about two minutes to walk off the field would normally win the prize, but credit to Preston's volunteer linesman who was so disgusted by his offside call being ignored (leading to Altona East sealing the game at 3-1) that he threw his flag onto the field and trundled off back to the gravel hill. No carry on after that, just stood with his mates and watched the rest of the game.

Under 21s
Well beaten by Northcote, 3-1. The one goal we did manage was pretty funny though. No further comment.

VPL Discussion/A Story About The Death of Pretence
Ah, the halcyon days of the A-League's formation. When those who sought to extend an olive branch from new dawn to crusty bitter attempted to show their inclusiveness by talking about the VPL in a special thread on their forum. I'm glad that phase is over. Like a divorced couple who still want to be friends for the sake of the children, the hatred that lead to the split eventually returned, just turned into indifference.

Zenith
So, are we the real Northcote yet? There can be only one!