Hasa Diga Eebowai - South Melbourne 1 Bentleigh Greens 4

Our social club is an empty shell!
Hasa Diga Eebowai!
And we're still living in VPHell!
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

All our new players are cup tied!
Hasa Diga Eebowai!
And all our goalies have gone and died!
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

When all the refs just hate your guts,
And there's nobody else to blame (Way oh!).
Raise your middle finger to the sky,
And curse his rotten name

If you don't like what we say ,
Try watching a couple of games.
Watch all your finals dreams just die,
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

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Now, maybe when the replay comes out it will make us all look like idiots. Maybe? Probably, perhaps. But on the face of it, that was some of the more dire officiating you'll see for some time, with Brenton Hayward putting himself right in contention for public enemy number one at Lakeside, at least in the referee category.

After we took a very early lead courtesy of Epifano popping up at the back post, the game looked set up to mirror perhaps the classic contest between the two sides earlier this season. As Bentleigh sought to get back into the game, one of their shots flew high over the crossbar, and Peter Gavalas collided with the Bentleigh player who had taken that shot.

Was it a two-footed challenge? Can you concede a penalty when the ball is no longer in play? Do any of these things matter? I'm not a ref, so I can't really say for sure. What I can say is that there was a palpable level of surprise at both the decision to award a penalty and to send Gavalas off. On the face of it, it seemed like one of those incidents that happen on a weekly basis. Only the footage will perhaps provide any clearer answers.

To add insult to injury, last week the Southern Stars keeper kicked one of our players, and nothing happened. Not during the game, not after.

So Epifano was sacrificed, and on came young goalkeeper Lajos Hun for his senior debut. The penalty in question was tucked away into the bottom corner, but then came another twist. Encroachment! The re-taken penalty was gently placed toward the middle of the goal, and Hun manged to catch the ball easily for the save. How about that.

Even with 10 men, we looked the better team in the first half, even with a crippled Rixon getting another start. The boys showed a fair bit of heart, and we went into the halftime break 1-0 up.  Quite how long anyone expected that lead to last is anyone's guess. I don't think there was anyone foolhardy enough to suggest that we'd keep a clean sheet for the rest of the game. In the end, it took until the 64th minute for the visitors to finally equalise with a wonderful long range shot which left the keeper rooted to the spot.

And then came the collapse. Iqi Jawadi was sent off, I think for a second yellow card for kicking the ball away. Our fans didn't seem happy with that, with the general reaction being that it was hardly a foul in the first place, and that in any case he had kicked the ball away about .2 of second after the whistle went. Even worse, Hun injured one of his arms and played the last half hour or so injured.

To be fair, Bentleigh probably did miss out on a legit penalty for handball in the second half, and got a few yellows as well, but they dodged the bullet on several occasions when I was left scratching my head as to how they got away with some of their tackles, as well as their kicking the ball away - assuming this is what Jawadi got his second yellow for.

The match ended with our supporters waiting near the players race for the referee to come down. The South players went through first, cheered off the ground. Then then Bentleigh players followed. The officials hung around in the middle of the pitch for awhile. Here was a point docking and fine waiting to happen. But the South supporters shouted their abuse, and then moved on. Almost exactly a year on from this game.

Hayward's Law is like Hayward's love: hard and fast. Photo: Cindy Nitsos

Now I know bagging the board, the coach, the players and the bloke who cleans the jerseys has been a longstanding tradition at South, even when we're winning. But it was still disappointing to see the usual grumble-bum collective hanging outside the gates going on about this stuff when the events in the match didn't justify it  - this time.

I mean, it was 9 against 12, or 14 or if you're in a really foul mood. What can anyone realistically do in those situations? There's the whole rest of the season and the off-season - oh goodness, won't that be fun! - to push whatever barrows we have. Couldn't we let it go for just one day, and turn our collective hatred away from ourselves and towards everyone else?

Steve From Broady's Under 21s Report
South Melbourne's under 21s took on Bentleigh Greens at Lakeside Stadium on Sunday. South, coming off a good 4-2 win against southern Stars, were looking to make it two wins in a row. South's under 21s had had a reshuffle in their squad with players leaving the club, such as Anthony Giannopoulos and some youngsters coming back down from the senior squad.

South kicked off and were applying all the early pressure, creating some good chances. In the 13th minute Solano played Baggio through the Greens defence - the opportunity looked to be gone, but Baggio took a massive crack from the byline and somehow he managed to squeeze the ball between the post and the keeper and into the back of the net to give South a 1-0 lead.

South kept the majority of possession for the rest of the first half and in the 37th minute Solano received the ball from Baggio. turned and fired the ball into the top corner to give South a 2-0 lead just before half time. Four minutes after South scored Bentleigh ran the ball down the other end of the park and caught the South defence napping when a Greens striker was played through and finished cooly to get a goal back just before half time. 2-1 to south was the score as the teams went into the sheds at half time.

Bentleigh came out in the second half in convincing fashion, creating some early chances, but that only lasted 10 minutes as South took back control and Baggio found himself through on goal once again from a defensive mix up from the Greens captain. Baggio finished with ease to pick up his second of the game and to give South a 3-1 lead.

In the 72nd minute Bentleigh beat South's offside trap and the Greens number 10 placed the ball beautifully into the bottom left corner to bring the score back to 3-2 and to give the greens a sniff. But Baggio ended that hope three minutes later when he completed his second hat-trick in two weeks giving South a 4-2 lead. The Greens scored a consolation goal in the final minute of the game, but South had done enough to come out 4-3 victors and to get their second win in a row.

South play Dandenong next week and it will be interesting to see if they can go three wins in a row. This squad has a new lease of life about them and played their best game of the season so far, and if they keep up the good work now look ready to run up the ladder and seriously challenge for the championship against Northcote. Until next week have a good week and enjoy the FFV cup quarter finals.

Steve From Broady's Canteen Report
South Melbourne's canteen was on show for a fourth week in a row. Getting sick of souvs and kranskies, I wandered over to our other canteen and had a pie - it was nothing and more nothing less than a solid meet pie. I give South's canteen this week a solid 6 out of 10.

1. Pascoe Vale 10/10
2. Hume City 8/10
3. Bentleigh Greens 7/10
4. Northcote City 3.5/10
5. Southern Stars 2/10
6. Green Gully 1/10
7. Dandenong DQ 

South food truck

• Week 1 - 4.5/10
• Week 2 - 7/10
• Week 3 - 8.5/10
• Week 4 - 5/10
• Week 5 - 5.5/10
• Week 6 - 9/10
• Week 7 - 6/10

Renco Van Eeken Fruit Watch
One of the more bizarre things ever to come up in an smfcboard discussion, was the attention being paid this week to what injured striker Renco Van Eeken has been eating at games over the past two months. There has been disagreement about whether it has been apples or bananas, with the likely answer being he's probably had both over the course of his injury layoff.

More bizarrely, there are even people who are angry at him for some reason for eating fruit. In these difficult times, any and all targets are fair game, I suppose. Still, are they expecting him to put away a dozen dim sims instead? For the record, according to the person I assigned to keep an eye on this matter, he had one banana yesterday. Perhaps we should get Steve From Broady to include it in his stats from now on.

For The Greek Speakers Out There
Do consider giving the 3XY sport show another go. They've apparently moved the old guys on and brought some fresh blood into the picture. Can't say that I agree with their opinions, and I don't expect South's treatment to get much better on that show, but they seem to be a lot more professional than the old crew. They even called themselves journalists, and the prospect of more regular talkback could be fun as well. You may even get to hear some familiar voices on said talkback.

Reform FFV
Hmm.

Next Game
Dockerty Cup quarter final against Preston, tomorrow evening. If you do not have a ticket, don't bother coming. I wonder how many of our new players are cup tied? And not forgetting that Alan Kearney needs to serve his suspension from the previous cup match against Northcote. And will we even have a keeper? Hopefully you all have your memberships and tickets. If not... well, why not?

Final Thought
Hasa Diga Eebowai

Did both teams drop two points? South Melbourne 2 Melbourne Knights 2

The match started flat. Well, we were flat at any rate, and my mood wasn't helped by conspiracy theory discussions and Thailand trip reminiscences (thanks for the shirt, Con!). And then we justly conceded the opening goal. And then we started playing well.

Our first equaliser was ruled out for offside, and there seem to be differing theories as to its legitimacy. For our actual equaliser there was little doubt, as Brad Norton added another goal to his impressive tally this season.

And then we fell asleep again, in the most heinous sort of fashion. Shayan Alinejad was free for about five minutes at the back post, and while he may have been offside, and while the finish was classy, he should not have had that kind of room. It's Defending 101.

So we went into half-time 2-1 down, and while I'm not begrudging the Knights their lead – they at least had the ability to finish – I was left feeling as if there were more goals left in the game, and if that we bothered to actually look like we were interested, that we'd be scoring most of them.

As it turned out, there was only one more goal in the game. And it didn't even come from our own labour, as we struggled to finish off a series of chances and were also denied by some desperate Knights defending. No, our second equaliser came from an own goal.

It could only have happened to Ljubo. Photo: Melbourne Knights.

Poor Ljubo. Playing for his boyhood club against one of their more important rivals – and the team he spent a memorable, what was it, eight matches with just a couple of years ago – and he coughs up an own goal. And it wasn't just any own goal, it was something so daft that you have to see it to believe it. All you can think of at a moment like that is 'it's funny because it's not happening to us'.

While there's people out there who've claimed that you 'couldn't make this shit up', Steve From Broady took a decent stab at it, having predicted in jest before the game that a Ljubo own goal would give South a 2-1 win. Close, but no cigar.

I have already read that some Knights fans think they could have got all three points if they finished a bit better in the first half. That's not an illegitimate position to take, but I reckon more important was our own attitude. Once we decided that we wanted to control this game, I think it became evident that we had more influence over this game's result.

When we come out to play, we are the equal of pretty much any of the leading sides in the league. When we seemingly choose to cruise through portions of the game, we look sloppy and second rate. The one saving grace is that last year, we were losing these games, relying on 15-20 minutes of OK football and three chances.

This year at least we're creating several good chances per game, and are at least putting together 45-60 minutes of solid football. It's not enough, but it shows we've made some progress, and that there's even more room for improvement. In contrast to a few people, I reckon Trent Rixon actually had a half decent game, even if it's frustrating for everyone that he's not yet on the score sheet this season. I'm not convinced that he's the best fit for the kind of pressing football that we want to play, but that's another issue entirely.

An Unplanned Detour
It's been fascinating reading other people's thoughts on this game. As mentioned earlier, Knights fans seem to feel a little hard done by based on their first half efforts, but afterwards feel fortunate to get a point out of the match based on their second half. One South fan saw the Knights putting on a lot of pressure on the first half, whereas I saw a South team that looked tentative and bereft of ideas, and even looking a bit slack, with the Knights taking advantage of that. It's another case of the same game and the same series of events being viewed differently by different individuals.

I only bring this up this week because in the course of looking back at Ljubo's brief stint at South, I came across this match report from 2011, when we got slaughtered 5-0 by Northcote (that we're playing them this week is a lucky co-incidence). One of our readers had a very negative reaction to what I had written, and I'd tried to defuse the situation with my patented 'let's trying reasoning with them' approach, before the Kiss of Death jumped in with a stronger, perhaps more hostile response.

Being a very sensitive soul, such criticism does take its toll on me, no matter how thick-skinned I pretend to be. Thankfully, I reckon most people who read this work are well aware of the context in which I'm writing - as a non-expert, partisan supporter. I'm also glad that most of the feedback we receive is positive, even for parts where the reader may disagree about our content.

Brenton Hayward and Gus Tsolakis know it's a game of opinions. Photo Cindy Nitsos.

While it was mostly me contributing to this site, I could to some extent keep such concerns to myself. Now that we have four of us contributing in some way, I'm more aware of the kinds of issues that can arise. Not that it's happened yet to Steve From Broady or Manny's work, but the Kiss of Death has won its cult audience based on its hard hitting, take no prisoners, poke them in the eye approach. Occasionally, despite the written disclaimer that I am not the Kiss of Death, that work has been equated with me, the non-expert, glasses wearing, never played a game in its life character, as opposed to the player, coach, administrator Kiss of Death character.

In my mind, these are not different personas of the same writer, they are clearly two distinct authors. I realise that it's easy for me to say that; after all, I know who the Kiss of Death is. And yet people who know both myself and the Kiss of Death in 'real life', have been among the people who have equated the Kiss of Death's work with my own.

In taking this detour, my aim wasn't to ask any of my writers to pull back, nor to add further caveats and disclaimers on to my work - only to digress briefly to see how diverse the views on our game can be, even within a very small sample of of people.

Back to the game
Finally, while I don't think that it had a major bearing on the end result – our poor finishing and pretty poor first half did most of the damage – but the refereeing was pretty crappy.

You Don't Look Half Bad For A 60 Year Old
This year is the Knights' 60th anniversary. As part of commemorating that event, there was a nice video played before the game and during half timeshowcasing the highlights of our rivalry. As it turns out there, were some not bad moments over the journey. There was also a commemorative plate given by South president Leo Athanasakis to his Knights equivalent Ange Cimera. When packing up the social club last year, I came across several such commemorative items, mostly dating back to the 1990s. I didn't realise that the practice still continued, but I'm pleased to see it's not dead in the water yet.

Steve from Broady's Under 21s Report
South Melbourne's under 21s were finally back in action on Sunday after two weeks with no game. South, taking on rivals the Melbourne Knights, were looking to get back into some decent form to push them up the table so they could get back into the title race.

South kicked off the match in sunny conditions. The first half was a very tight affair, with both teams struggling to gain an inch on their opponents with an equal amount of turn overs, balls into the box, shots and clearances. It was a fairly uneventful half but towards the end of the first half there was a piece of action that fired up both teams when a Knights defender put in a disgusting tackle on Anthony Giannopoulos in front of the Knights bench. Both benches were up in arms South screaming for a red and the Knights bench calling for a dive, which was quite embarrassing from the Knights as the tackle clearly should have seen the Knights player dismissed from the game - but he managed to stay on the pitch to the surprise of many at Lakeside and added more questions about the refereeing in the under 21s competition this season.

The first half come to an end with the score 0-0. The crowd was building up nicely as the second half began. South started dominating possession early in the second half and was creating good chances while moving forward. In the 53rd minute South were rewarded for their good start to the half when Cartanos picked the ball up on the edge of the area and blasted the ball across the keeper into the top right corner of the net to give South a 1-0 lead.

South went up another gear after that goal and continued to dominate the match and nine minutes later it was Cartanos creating a goal out of nothing as he smashed another long range shot into the back of the net. At that stage of the game Knights looked finished and South continued to dominate as the game came to a close. In the final minutes Solano picked up his second yellow card of the season for a silly tackle. It finished up 2-0 South Melbourne, the city is blue and white until the next time the two teams play each other.

Here's hoping this win is the start of a long winning streak which can send South to the top of the league, until next week get around it!!!!!!

Steve from Broady's Canteen Report
South's canteen was on centre stage this week after a cup round of disgraces worse than sliced bread e.g. (coffee stands closing at half time, canteens closing at full time of a cup game which is going into extra time). Anyway South's food van picked up its game this week, producing a quality souv with lamb that for once was not, dry a good portion of tzatziki and of course the legendary pita bread. After the game the canteen stayed open for the under 18s game which flabbergasted me after what happened last week. Anyway, I talked my way into a free kransky with the canteen woman. Besides the fact it was free, it was a pretty decent kransky, I rate the South food van this week an 8.5 out of 10. They're so close to that 10/10, can they crack it before season's end? Only the food gods know, until next week keep off the sliced bread.

1. Pascoe Vale 10/10
2. Hume city 8/10
3. Bentleigh Greens 7/10
4. Southern Stars 2/10
5. Green Gully 1/10
6. Dandenong DQ

South food truck

• Week 1, 4.5/10
• Week 2, 7/10
• Week 3, 8.5/10

I'm still not sure why the Jordanians had a stuffed rabbit. Photo: Gains

National Duty - Australia vs Jordan
I don't like the Docklands Stadium, but at least most times you can count of having a half decent view of proceedings. Sadly this was not the case for me and my crew on Tuesday, where we found ourselves on the ground level behind the goals, about ten rows back, with the crossbar blocking a good deal of the view.

We did get to see a fair bit of first half action, but the second half frankly was a bit of a blur. I think I saw Cahill's header for his goal, but the rest was a bit of a mess, and we had to take our cues from the parts of the crowd who could actually see the action at that end.

We were two bays over from the Jordanian supporters, who made a bit of noise until they copped the first goal, and were heard less and less as they conceded more goals. As for the Australian home end, they were pretty quiet except for when Archie Thompson came on.

At half time, as per the New Zealand friendly at the MCG a few years ago, they gave out a few retrospective caps to national team players. I think I was the only person to cheer for Michael Curcija getting his. Some people don't get no respect, but I'm no longer surprised by it, and only a little bitter.

The dreaded Mexican Wave got a very good run. I much preferred the old fashioned foot stamping. Still, the team is one favourable result from another World Cup appearance, and we should be grateful for that, considering the sputtering mess that the campaign has been up to this point. Almost time to roll out the bandwagon again.

Next Week
Rematch vs Northcote, this time at their place, and in the league. It's the start of a pretty tricky series of games - the good thing is, that after this game, they're mostly home games.

Final Thought
To a different Con from the one mentioned at the start, get well soon mate, and we hope to see you at South again as soon possible.