Bloody cold on Friday night, with a bitter wind. A win would have made it worthwhile, but we didn't get it, did we? What hurt the most - apart from the missed opportunities - is what looked like a casual attitude of playing out from the back and of clearing the ball out of that area. It eventually came back to bite us on the arse, and saw us drop two points again against a competition struggler, after we'd already dropped two points each against Southern Stars and Pascoe Vale.
It's just a little bit dispiriting. In the end, I thought Richmond probably deserved a goal, but we deserved two. We didn't get it, and now we're back in our little hole. Hopper's goal was great, but his missed opportunity in the second half - damn it! - one of those occasions where either side of the keeper would have done the trick, but unfortunately it went straight at the keeper. Holmes' shooting is still reliably unreliable, though I thought he had a good game otherwise. Rixon coming off the ground injured changed the game a bit. His presence suited the style of play we've adopted (I think), and we were a bit lost when he went off. Meredith got a go, where usually Vlahos has been subbed on in such situations. Somebody on smfcboard has suggested that Vlahos may have quit the club. Hope that's not true, as surely we'll need someone of that calibre for our cup run at the very least.
It was interesting to see Maynard in goals again considering Gavalas could have returned after serving his suspension. But having done nothing wrong, and possibly because he is our wave of the future, Maynard started and did well again. I don't think he made any significant errors - though late in the game I would have preferred he kick it long rather than throw the ball short.
It's always crap when we play a thug/physical team and we get a ref like Bruno. He and the assistants copped their fair bit of grief from our supporters, but in the end it wasn't a deciding factor in the result. It's not been the most descriptive of match reports, but I paid even less attention than usual to what was going on.
Steve From Broady's Under 21s Report
South Melbourne's under 21s were away at Richmond on Friday night. South were aiming to make it a perfect month with four wins from four games. South kicked off the match and in the fourth minute they lost the ball on halfway and the Richmond front man ran the ball down half the pitch, dummied a shot, rounded the South keeper and slid the ball home to give Richmond a 1-0 lead.
South kicked off again trying to get back on level terms but the South lads just didn't look right with several South players slipping over and calling for a change of boots. The boys were made to pay for their poor start again with Richmond running down the wing with the ball, cutting into the area and firing in a shot which beat the young South keeper on his near post in the 12th minute. 2-0 Richmond and South would have to perform a miracle to come back from their poor start.
And not even 10 minutes later South had conceded again, Richmond's number 28 picking up his second as he put the ball through the South keeper's legs and into the back of the net to give Richmond a 3-0 lead. Richmond continued to control possession for the rest of the first half and once again were rewarded before half time with Richmond's number 28 completing his hat-trick putting the ball through the South keeper's legs once again to send Richmond into the sheds with a 4-0 lead and unfortunately for South conceding their third soft goal of the night.
Baggio Yousif who had scored 8 goals in three weeks was non-existent in the first half. As Richmond kicked off the second half four goals to the good South quickly regained possession and dominated it for the whole second half, creating heaps of opportunities but failing to score them.
They were condemned to their first loss in a month, but there was some good news for South in the last minute, as Baggio Yousif got the ball inside the area and fired home to give South a consolation goal. 4-1 to Richmond it finished, a disappointing result for South, the worst game they have played all season and unfortunately the championship looks gone with Northcote running away with the title 15+ points clear with six games left. South are at home against Hume city next week see ya then.
Steve From Broady's Canteen Report
I was at Richmond's canteen on Friday night. With all the news coming out of there I was not expecting much. I had a burger witch was in general OK to solid, but it was not filling and the tomato was rubbish. I give the Richmond canteen a 6.5 - the glory days of Richmond's canteen are over and with them likely to get relegated it looks like we will never eat there again. Sad, but life goes on. Back at the South food van next week, can they get their average score up? All will be answered next week, see ya then.
- Pascoe Vale 10/10
- Hume City 8/10
- Bentleigh Greens 7/10
- Richmond 6.5/10
- Northcote City 3.5/10
- Southern Stars 2/10
- Green Gully 1/10
- 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
- Week 8 - 7.5/10
Next Game
Hume at home. Do or die and all that.
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A scene from the reserves game, before the weather turned.
Photo: Paul Mavroudis (taken on my shitty phone) |
Around The Grounds
For the first time in a few months I was able to make it out to an Altona East game. They were playing Whittlesea Ranges, a team I don't give a toss about, especially since they've never really played soccer that has caught my attention.
I caught the second half of the ressies match, where East managed to score an equaliser against the run of play, and probably should have snatched it. 1-1 it finished there, a pretty sloppy game even by state 2 reserves standards.
East's senior haven't been having a good time of it this season, but I must have caught them on a good day, because they were all over Ranges in the first half. Winger Peter Meletis should have opened the scoring but put his header onto the crossbar unmarked and about metre out. Never mind though, as East took a 2-0 lead through Colin Hopgood and Teddy Yabio.
The wind that East had in the first half dropped off, and the rain started, slowly at first, but then increasing in intensity as the match wore on. Ranges were the better team in the early parts of the second half, and their persistence saw them pull back a goal and make a game of it. Too bad for them, they conceded a goal at the near post from a corner, Paul Galea the scorer. Teddy Yabio nabbed another goal at the end for East, and that was that.
So all in all, a cold, wet, but happy day at Paisley Park. And the souvs are just as good as they ever were.
Neos Kosmos
Kings of comedy these people. So, after reading about our whinging somewhere about how they've called us Σαουθ Μελμπουρν in their Greek language section, and not doing similar things to other clubs, they've relented and have started mixing it up a bit with all the teams getting a bit of a treatment.
Still, they couldn't avoid having a dig in their own pathetic way. When Mr Donoudis was talking about the NPL issues - I thought he wasn't really interested in writing about state league issues, but there he was anyway - and he writes about how none of us thought we could have a national league with Marconi, Olympic etc, he mentions us in that list as 'South (then)', once again making his insipid point about us not being the 'real' South.
It's an attitude so childish even a blogger would blush.
NPLV
Off to court it seems. It's become an annual tradition.
Final Thought(s)
Considering he has his own Ferrari, yacht and Hawaiian island (one of the good ones, not one of those with the lepers) the Cypriot nut-man could at least crack a smile as he pushes his trolly around, especially after Hopper's quite lovely goal. And what happened to peanuts anyway? It's all seeds and cashews these days. And he could at least have put a warm towel over them to keep the cashews warm.
Anyway, while I don't want to go all Michael Lynch and judge our soccer primarily by its food, but in the event that the NPL doesn't go ahead or that we're in situation where we don't play them because we're in separate comps, good riddance to Richmond and whoever's running the joint there these days, for ripping out the heart and soul of that club. Got rid of the cakes, got rid of the good burgers and kranskies, and it looks like they've messed up the bar as well. And speaking of the cakes, your little prepackaged muffins aren't fooling anyone. Go to hell.
