Bad feeling - Pascoe Vale 2 South Melbourne 0

That was incredibly deflating. I want to be optimistic because of the fact that, apart from the two heinous errors committed by Alastair Bray and Billy Konstantinidis, we played well, and created enough chances to score and earn a draw.

But the other part of me agrees with Leigh Minopoulos' post-match comments, that playing well and not getting any points is, erm, pointless. So this could go one of two ways - we could continue playing well and have our luck change, or we could start playing objectively poor football and find ourselves getting humiliated.

No KK, who was sick, and no Roganovic who was also sick, certainly didn't help matters. KK's absence meant that everyone's favourite whipping boy Perry Lambropoulos (who I am told is not Con Tangalakis' godson) got a start, as did the under-prepared Alastair Bray. Bray's first touch was fine, a long clearing kick, except for the fact that it looked like he'd hurt himself in the process. Worse was to come, when he passed the ball straight to ex-South man Dimi Hatzimouratis for an easy finish and the first goal scored by Pascoe Vale this year that wasn't credited to Davey van 't Schip.

Then just as we starting to look like we might get back in the game - and it was still very early on - Billy Konstantinidis, who must've been responding to some very harsh treatment from the defender next to him, decide to punch said opponent in the guts. It made a hell of a sound, and the crumpled player on the ground pretty much made it a dead give away that something bad had happened, and Billy got his marching orders. Because it's also on video, it looks like Billy will be on the sideline for some weeks, if not months to come.

Which is a terrible shame for someone who was going to be one of the two most important players in our efforts to be competitive this year. I would've thought that being a pro for over a decade in Greece that Billy would have copped worse, but who knows. Certainly not I, who has never been in a similar kind of position like ever, except for this one time at Greek school back in the 90s, but that's another story.

The rest of the half saw Paco sit back - and while we tried to attack, there had not been time to properly reshuffle and thus Marcus Schroen was playing both midfield and centre forward, which wasn't working of anyone. Still, as unquestionable as Billy's send off was, I can't believe that Davey van 't Schip didn't get the same punishment for a swinging elbow, let alone how Gerrie being fouled from behind after he beat two or three opponents didn't warrant anything except a play on call.

Oh, and apparently you can push down on an opponent's shoulders from a corner now. Good to know.

The second half was better was from us, and it was hard to tell whether Paco were content to sit back or actually scared of what we were capable of, but we didn't have our shooting boots on. Three games in a row with no goals suggests to me that we need to send out a more attacking team. Taking Gerrie Sylaidos off when you're chasing a game doesn't seem to fit in with that equation though. Leigh Minopoulos, coming back from injury again, got about fifteen minutes, but clearly has a ways to go before being match fit.

The closest we got was a shot cleared off the line, but it was only a matter of time before Paco got out the back and finally put the game to rest. Three losses in a row, a still unsettled and imperfect line up, and you wonder if it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Next match
Green Gully at 'home', at John Cain Memorial Park. In 27 games here, we've only lost four times, all to Northcote. Not that a stat like that means anything.

FFA Cup news
Our fourth round match against Essendon Royals has been scheduled for the Good Friday public holiday next month, with Lakeside as the venue.

Match programs
Thanks to Luke Patitsas of the Sour Grapes South blog for sending over one more match program, from the 2015 grand final. We've also added a couple more from Mark Boric from the 2002/03 season, the Wollongong and Newcastle home programs - and we'll add a Carlton away program from 1999/2000 tomorrow when I can do add text recognition to it, As usual, you can find the new additions with the old, on the South match programs page.

On the couch

Good to see a soccer club that still has a pinball machine. Bad to see a photographer
get too arty for their own good and take a pic of said in table in black and white!
Photo: Luke Radziminski.

Got to see two South women's games this week; well most of them anyway. The first game was a midweek affair against Alamein out at the Knox synthetics. This was an ugly, ugly game to watch. South coughed up the early lead and had to wait until very late to claw back the game - and only via a semi-dodgy penalty. Good on Sofia Sakalis for smashing in an unstoppable shot from the spot. Imagine what player - still only 17 - could achieve if only she lost a bit of hell tunnel vision when she has the ball.

Then onto to a Saturday night game in Geelong against the Galaxy, who are now playing out of Stead Park and wearing the colours of Geelong SC - they've got to do what works and keeps them as a going concern I suppose, and playing out of Torquay the past few seasons seems to have been a sort of dead end.

Once again, a pretty ugly game, and worse, this time the side fell 2-0 behind before halftime. I honestly don't know about this team this season. We're always a little bit of a slow starting team until the W-League players return, but it feels like there's been a slip in standards. To be fair, one commentator on soccer-forum whose opinions on these matters I respect has suggested that the standard across the board has slipped a bit. Certainly I think not having Melina Ayers not the retired (to social football) Tiff Eliadis has taken away something from the team.

Still, diminished or not, the team found a way back from the brink in this game, eventually steamrolling past the home team to 4-2. Almost every one of the four goals had a bit of luck or chaos to it, but it's not how, but how many right? Just ask the senior men's team about style over substance.

Around the grounds
The game with the worst ref in Victorian soccer
Here's the thing about actually attending a game in person. Unless the game is like, just around the corner from your house, getting up and leaving halfway through the match is usually not worth the bother, because the time and effort and money (for those that pay entry) expended in getting there means it probably isn't worth getting up and going home after 35 minutes of awful football. Which is to say, that I have been spoilt by the five weeks or so of non-stop live streamed games. But someone will make an argument about fresh air, sociability, and souvs, and I suppose you have to test that theory out as well. Well out at Paisley Park the air is always refinery fresh, the sociability is limited to the same two or three sane people you'd find at any ground, and the souv, being a round one 2019 offering, was of course put into a round 22 2018 roll. The game between Altona East and Mill Park, who I'm already predicting to be among the mid-table also rans - and this is me, who never makes predictions like these. Anyway, this was a lousy game for 40 odd minutes, and then picked up thanks to a red card to East and a converted penalty to Mill Park. The game opened up in the second half. East butchered some chances, drew level from a corner, Mill Park missed a penalty, and then Jerry Karpeh - remember him? - hit one of the worst penalties I've ever seen, and East failed to take the lead, which naturally led to the visitors scoring two late ones for a 3-1 win. I'll probably be back.

Final thought

International students vs what I wear into uni pic.twitter.com/Ub3ZHEQSch

— Joe (@iconikonomidis) March 24, 2019