Holding off on panicking for now - Avondale 4 South Melbourne 0

On the one hand, this is the kind of result that was on the cards on a number of fronts. First, because Avondale is a pretty good team, one of the best in this competition, and we are at best in the very early stages of trying to build a team that can reach that level. Second, because we are new and young team, there are going to be games where we get flattened. Third, because we were pretty ordinary through large chunks of the win against Port the other week.

Such was Saturday's game, where we fell behind early, pulled our finger out for about twenty minutes after that, but having failed to take advantage of the two or three half-chances that we had, proceeded to fall apart at an alarming rate. Roganovic standing flat-footed for the second goal was almost as alarming as the fact that Stefan Zinni's goal was the third match in a row he'd scored against us since leaving us, putting him in the Joseph Youssef class of ex-players doing us over.

And it's not like we weren't trying - we were - but we just weren't good enough on the ball, off the ball, and even just in general fitness which is a really big concern. Getting sucked into fights in the tunnel doesn't help either, and not starting Sylaidos seemed to backfire, because by the time he did get brought on the game was already cooked.

For all of Schroen's heroics against Port, he wasn't much chop against Avondale, but I suppose in a losing cause it was good to at least get some run in his legs. Playing two defensive mids looks like a dead-end tactic once we fall behind, and so either Gage or Bereveskos is probably to going have to make way for Schroen as a full-time mid.

George Howard continues to work hard as a makeshift forward, but it's not working. You'd be better off playing Pep Marafioti as a forward or even Manny Aguek, who'd all be killing time until Builly Konstantinidis gets fit enough.

Now seeing as how we all probably had the Bentleigh game and this one as losses before the season started, and that there's little to be gained from trawling through that muck, we may as well pad out the rest of this piece by talking about what an awful experience everything outside the result itself was on Saturday.

Considering there was some sort of signage at the Reggio Calabria last year about how Avondale were going to build some sort of stand, I was disappointed not to see anything even started. Not that I expected them to have finished, but here we were on a warm day, and almost zero shelter for spectators. The limited shelter choices were a small tarp canopy, a small and rapidly diminishing patch of shade in the south-east corner of the stadium, and some shaded area in the shadow of the Reggio Calabria Club.

Oh, and I suppose the Reggio Calabria Club itself, assuming they would let guests sit on their balcony on a match day without a two or three drink minimum.

Speaking of drinks, Avondale had three alcoholic drinks on tap; a cider, a Belgian pale ale, and their own signature beer, something called 'Avenger Ale'. The bloke working the bar at least had the honesty to admit that the Avenger Ale was actually just the pale ale under a different name, just in case an opposition supporter didn't feel comfortable ordering it. No word on whether the cider also came from the same tap.

As for opposition supporters, well this week that would be us, but going off the live streams and highlights packages of Avondale games, I'm not sure that'd be such a problem most weeks. One bike-riding #sokkahtwitter identity who was there as a neutral openly speculated that 90% of the crowd was South fans; an observation which, as I noted to him at the time, would be no surprise to any South fan who has spent any time following the club in this competition.

That's not to cast aspersions on the validity of a team like Avondale or Bentleigh or Hume and their two men a dog supporter bases being in this competition and having success despite the low turnouts. And anyone who is a supporter of the meritocracy of promotion-relegation, as I famously am, must allow for teams who have earned their way up the league pyramid by winning championship or being promoted through conventional means to enjoy the fruits of their labour.

And we must also make the allowance that income from crowds is not even close to being the main income source for any club at this level and that, if anything, actually having supporters in this league is a liability, not just for the mischief they might get up to that could cost you points and fines, but also just their rank, desperate neediness.

That absence of fans does mean that vocal and visual support has to come from somewhere else, and that means the only people left to do it at supporter-less clubs are either committee members of the players and coaching staff themselves. And when players decide to take that mantle upon themselves, it usually just ends up in them being outrageously and tastelessly obnoxious to their opponents or opposition supporters, as was the case on Saturday.

You're up 4-0 against what is at best a middling team, and you still want to act like knobs? That's the nature of life choices I suppose, and you can choose to please yourself first I guess. There were plaudits for the general good humour of Chris Oldfield in goal in dealing with the supporters behind his end, but my riposte to that is it's easy to be good humoured and genial when you're up 4-0.

Next game
Monday night away to Kingston City.

On the couch
Why would you even want to leave the house anymore?
Now that every NPL Victoria game is streamed live, why would you dare risk the demonstrating the ignominy of your status as a dateless wonder to all and sundry by actually leaving the house and attending an NPL game? Stay home instead, keep the gate money, avoid the stadium music, drink your own beer, eat your own food. It's like having a cut-rate pay tv subscription. And really, what would you miss from attending? The c-grade surliness of the security guards? Overhearing the ressies - those few that have stayed back after their game to watch the seniors - talking about chick on Tinder? The inane ranting of the competing coaches, which carries across the whole stadium (and I use that term loosely), because there's no crowd or competing atmosphere to drown it out?

The last of these you can still get on the stream anyway of the coaches are near the broadcast side, if you're still one of those people who is entertained by that kind of carry-on. For the rest of us, we can just sit at home, flick between whatever game happens to take our fancy, or just ignore them all and do something else. Where I would normally have gone out to Knights Stadium even though it's less fun now that Knights look like a competitive side again, I got home late from some other business and watched the final ten minutes of the first half of their game against Bentleigh. Tyson Holmes coughed up a very poor turnover in his own half which led to Bentleigh falling behind. Soon enough it was halftime, and the opportunity presented itself to switch to the other game.

Paco vs Port was irritating for the fact that there was no atmosphere except for the coaches yelling, and a game that was kinda meh. But at least when I turned it on it was still 0-0, and thus 'competitive' by default. Paco had more of the ball, more territory, more corners, but since they only have one avenue to goal and he was being triple teamed, nothing meaningful was being created on their front. Port looked ordinary, and struggled to get the ball for good portions of the first half, but still missed the best chance of the first half when their West Ham youth team striker who scored against us the week before missed an open goal. These things happen.

At half-time of the Pace game, I switched back to the Knights game, where I saw Knights double their lead, at which point I switched it to something else because who wants to see Knights fans happy? Answer, no one. The Paco game resumed, they kept winning corners but did nothing with them, and eventually Port used slightly underhanded play - a short corner played to a substitute, who played it to the back post where an unmarked Michael Eagar received the ball in part because two Paco defender took each other out. But Eags' control and finish were class, and that pretty much decided the game.

The next day after an overly greasy chicken katsu and rice dinner, on the train I watched only bits and pieces of Hume vs Heidelberg, and Dandy Thunder vs Magic. The next day I watch Nortchote vs Murray United until the former close out the game, and then the last five minutes of St Albans vs Moreland Zebras filmed from the opposite side to which they usually do, which is disorienting I have to tell you, and it must have affected Zebras too because they just stopped and spent the last five minutes giving the ball back to Dinamo who did the right thing and took advantage of that generosity.

Was any of that as enjoyable as actually being at a game. We'll never know.

At the desk
Through gritted teeth
Watching Kingston grind their way to a draw with Oakleigh doesn't fill me with confidence for next week, because they couldn't be that ordinary two weeks in a row.

Final thought
I can't tell you about the quality of the food at Avondale, because I stopped by the Vic Market and bought a weisswurst before the game, but Dave had some very strong opinions about one of the offerings at Avenger Park.

Even if this saves just one person from disappointment, it will be worth it, but @AvondaleFC84 had the worst potato cakes I've ever had, in my life, period. #NPLVIC

— ēļřāffő (@dvrf1878) March 10, 2019