We lost. Again. - Avondale 2 South Melbourne 0

This report is late because of reasons. It's nice to know people care, though I suspect one such concerned reader is mostly gagging to go nuts in the comments section against the mysterious Esteban loving "anonymous" user. Whatever floats your boat, dear reader.

Back in the real world, our resident traffic and transportation guru is interested in how I get to games. Well, for Lakeside, that's easy - usually a car to Sunshine station, a train to Southern Cross, and the tram down to Lakeside. 

But for Avondale and the Reggio Calabria Club, that's a bit more complicated, especially last Saturday. Drive to Sunshine station, then a replacement bus service to North Melbourne station, then Upfield train up to Royal Park, then switch to a tram for two whole (admittedly relatively lengthy) stops, then down the hill at Brunswick Road to the Reggio Calabria Club. That explains the how.

(and if that seems excessive and stupid, think about the poor sap who drove around and around looking for a parking spot at that ground)

The why, however, remains somewhat elusive. Short of remaining hostage to the idea that one should remain loyal to something which may not merit that loyally, and hanging out with a bunch of people you would never associate with in "real life" (and vice versa), I suppose there's something in watching the competition's best worst team on a weekly basis.

Undefeated for how ever many weeks, and now two losses on the trot. The "big month that was supposed to reveal the truth about this team" is now halfway through, and we've learned at least that sitting back doesn't work that well after all, especially if you sit too deep against competent opposition. Also, maybe having more than one striker on your books could be a good idea.

Some people say that Harrison Sawyer will be back this or next week. Harrison Sawyer at the ground seemed to think he was at least a few weeks away, and who knows if it's actually worse? Sawyer is gangly, awkward, and in the eyes of a good chunk of our support, also ineffective; but what a baby giraffe shaped hole which has existed since he got injured. 

Some people tried to sell us on the idea that Josh Barresi was a forward instead of an attacking mid, but that line died on Saturday afternoon when we started with Marcus Schroen started up front as a false nine. That almost worked for ten minutes, to the extent that we probably should have been in front either from the shot from, six yards straight at ex-South man Rory Brian, or - and boy, you've got to be careful about how you phrase these things, considering what happened later - from what was probably a pretty good penalty shout waved away by the referee.

It was right in front of me, and right in front of the ref - who was *this* close to blowing his whistle and pointing to the spot - and yet we were probably the only two people in the vicinity who had doubts about whether it was actually a penalty. Me, I guess it's because I'm a reflexive contrarian, but it's also possible that I was trying to figure out what the ref's reasoning might have been. Did he think the Avondale defender got the ball? Did he think Schroen just sort of, I don't know, fell over the defender?

Whatever the reasoning, the net result was that Schroen got hurt and had to go off, our players' feelings - especially skipper Brad Norton's - got hurt, and we picked up a bunch of stupid yellow cards (bye bye Braddles for the next league game), and walked into half time with nothing to be happy about except that it was still 0-0 and that neither team looked particularly superior or inferior, at least in terms of creating chances.

Then during the second half (and a more than passable chicken sandwich, a perfectly fine but also completely overrated cannoli  - but also, cannoli at the football, how marvellous - and charity donuts) 

we looked like a mid-range contender being toyed with by a team for whom it's grand final or bust. We were directionless going forward because we have no idea who the forward is meant to be in the absence of our one obvious forward option. As usual, midfielders posing as forwards is not a solution, and has not been a solution for many years, under a variety of post-Chris Taylor coaches, but short of playing Yianni Panakos from the 21s, this is probably the best we have to look forward to in the short term at least.

Although think of the possibilities if we actually chose to play a smaller, more mobile forward instead of (in the absence of Sawyer) trying to force the issue through ill-suited midfielders options. Think also of what it would mean to promote another youth team player. I mean, Ben Djiba did give away the penalty which set us back last week, but what's one mistake in the long run of finding out that you might actually have talent under your own roof?

We were also under the pump going back, because we sit so deep, and once we copped the goal (these things happen, even to the most miserly defence in the league), it was a case of good luck making that up. Things only got worse when we actually managed to get a penalty of our to match the one Avondale scored from, only for Gerrie Sylaidos' shot to be saved by Brian. Then 2-0, and all we could hang our hat on was a Norton shot (which might have been a pass, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt) that went wide, more s***t c*****s, and the relief that we didn't get beaten by more goals.

Speaking of penalties, remember that season - I think it was the first Gus Tsolakis season - where we couldn't get a penalty to save ourselves, and yet here we are in 2021, with this terrible, defensive set up, and still picking up penalties like no tomorrow. Port (Sawyer, saved), Magic (Sylaidos, scored), Werribee (Panakos, scored), Knights (Jakovic, scored), Avondale (Sylaidos, missed)

Still, we lost, and copped grief from Avondale's subs warming up near us, Rory Brian getting away with time-wasting over and over (except for that belated one time), and the relief that we didn't get beaten by more. I also had to climb up that damn hill to get home. Then the tram flew by before Gains and I could get across the street to catch it. Which again brings back to mind the question of "why" instead of "how", a question which will probably remain unanswered for the foreseeable future.

Next game

At home on Saturday night against an in form Bentleigh, to close out the first half of the season. The senior women play the curtain raiser, in the first of several men's and women's double-headers. Then the club will have a DJ, which scares the crap out of me.

FFA Cup fixture news

It looks like our cup fixture against Eastern Lions has been scheduled for Wednesday June 2nd. That places it in between our home league game against the Bergers, and our away league game against Eastern Lions.

They finally sorted it out. Good for them. 

Thanks to my new temporary job - taking the staples out of decades-old civil aviation safety dossiers - I completely missed this bit of news. After the match was postponed so that all the parties involved could work on "maximising the enjoyment of the fans", the Oakleigh vs Preston FFA Cup match will be played at Lakeside next Tuesday. Will we make any money off this? Will we get the blame if something goes wrong? Does Oakleigh really need the help of several new signings in order to beat a team two divisions below them. Some people may care about the answers. I'm more interested in how to remove staples more easily.

Final thought

Someone asked me (eventually) if we have our NSL Cup (not league) trophies somewhere, because some bloke is trying to track down the whereabouts of all the NSL Cup trophies. Quite a few of them are missing - I know Brisbane City's and Newcastle (Adamstown) Rosebud's are nowhere to be found; not sure about Collingwood Warriors, I assume the Bergers have that stashed somewhere, I don't know if ours are in storage, or missing like so many other things, but it will be nice to find out, eventually. I know we have the Charity Cup, which we won against Olympic, in a match we qualified for because we won the NSL Cup back in 1990.