southmelb said:

The new grandstand is nice. Its small and only seats 500 but it makes the venue look a lot better. I still chose to remain on the other side. Yes they took card and nobody argued about it which was nice.

We deserved to win that, Ramazani and Yoo the standouts, some absolute dreadful mistakes late in the game by our favourite whipping boys Mesourouni, Lackay and Swibel, just no game awareness at all from them.

On unrelated note when did eaton mall become such a dump? Feels like a wasteland overun by hoons, bit of an eye opener, everything closes so much earlier compared to the old days as well.

Click to expand...

I was living in the heart of Oaks for 3 yrs. Could not wait to get the fuck out of there. Lucky to have been back twice in 10 months...

That was a big win tonight given the context of our season and strengthening our position in the top 6.

Oakleigh is a very good team. They started stronger in the first half and were more on top early on. We steadied things from the 20th-25th minute mark and finished stronger in that first half. Juach should have scored that one on one chance late in the first half. He’s clearly missing match fitness and that striker’s performance touch. He was much better today, and was involved in our first goal in the second half by heading the ball to Yoo for running into space and scoring a great goal.

Yoo had another great match. He was everywhere and involved in all build ups. His movement and forward drives caused all sorts of trouble for the Oakleigh defence. Yuki was also amazing and was running rings around the Oakleigh players. Retre continues to show why he’s been a great addition. Simply all class. Ramazani - not enough words can describe how great he was once again. Solid defensively again and has formed a great partnership with Jankovic.

I don’t understand why those late substitutions were made. You can’t risk matches against the likes of Oakleigh with players they won’t help. Lackay was tripping over himself. The other substitute nearly cost us an equaliser goal at the death. Just ridiculous stuff.

The injuries of Lampard, Mikkola and Menelaou has exposed our lack of depth on the bench. Apart from Nkwomo and Swibel, we had nothing. Players like Pope, Leech and Dovison should have retained for the bench.

One of the other benefits tonight was the draw between Heidelberg and CS George Cross. That means we jump over Heidelberg and create a 4 point gap from CS George George. Given Preston is facing an almost certain point deduction (they had a suspended -3 point deduction already), then South could aim to finish at least fourth. More importantly it gives us a little bit of breathing space as well.

On a side note, the new grandstand looked good. It’s probably big enough for their needs.

Spartan Warrior said:

Can you believe if we won against Gully and Altona we would be sitting 2nd tonight....

Click to expand...

That is a freaky stat. Even after throwing 4 straight matches in May, and other loses to Dandenong Thunder and Melbourne City Youth we could have been sitting second.

We really have screwed ourselves out of a top 2 finish.

We are within a game of third spot. Preston is likely to face a points deduction so that will help us climb the ladder further. Interesting to see what happens in the Melbourne City Youth vs Avondale match on Saturday afternoon. A draw there would be an optimal outcome for us. It means third spot could possibly come into play for us.

Pretty disappointed we lost but atleast im having a laugh at the conspiracy theories ive read online from Preston fans.

Spartan Warrior said:

I was living in the heart of Oaks for 3 yrs. Could not wait to get the fuck out of there. Lucky to have been back twice in 10 months...

Click to expand...

It is the middle of winter. In the ‘good old days’ it was not great.

Maybe they need to bring back smoking? Hehe

We have really lifted in the last 3 weeks. Ramazani is someone we should try signing long term he has actually brought out the best of Jankovic as well. Charlston had an alright game very lucky tonight but he has stepped up. Midfield s becoming one of the strongest we have had in awhile which is finally good did see. Juach showed glimpses last night but I'm worried if he doesn't start putting a few away we may have a new Kevin Nelson on our hands haha.

As for those fireworks or home made bombs or whatever the fuck it was aged me another 10 years hahah

Son of Sam said:

It is the middle of winter. In the ‘good old days’ it was not great.

Maybe they need to bring back smoking? Hehe

Click to expand...

I remember playing them in the middle of winter back in 2014, easily 2,500+ there, eaton mall absolutely pumping after the game well past midnight. Looks like the whole suburb has fallen off a cliff. Feels like Broadmeadows, just a bunch of teens outside Vanila watching lunatics speed up and down the strip, what a fall from grace!

southmelb said:

I remember playing them in the middle of winter back in 2014, easily 2,500+ there, eaton mall absolutely pumping after the game well past midnight. Looks like the whole suburb has fallen off a cliff. Feels like Broadmeadows, just a bunch of teens outside Vanila watching lunatics speed up and down the strip, what a fall from grace!

Click to expand...

I was expecting at least 1,200 attendance last night. Lucky if there was 900 attendance.

Eaton Mall at night is not what it used to be.

Mangia said:

We have really lifted in the last 3 weeks. Ramazani is someone we should try signing long term he has actually brought out the best of Jankovic as well. Charlston had an alright game very lucky tonight but he has stepped up. Midfield s becoming one of the strongest we have had in awhile which is finally good did see. Juach showed glimpses last night but I'm worried if he doesn't start putting a few away we may have a new Kevin Nelson on our hands haha.

As for those fireworks or home made bombs or whatever the fuck it was aged me another 10 years hahah

Click to expand...

Well said. We need to retain Ramazani at all cost. He’s brought out the best of Jankovic. His forward run last night was nearly converted by Juach.

So what was that loud bang towards the end of the game?

southmelb said:

So what was that loud bang towards the end of the game?

Click to expand...

Post game celebrations....

What was great about last night is that we have so much uplift to come with Juach and others getting better and fitting in to our system.

southmelb said:

So what was that loud bang towards the end of the game?

Click to expand...

Aki finally exploded!!

Live stream dropped out for the second goal for me unfortunately

Was just at south melbourne market at souths pop up booth. I asked about and apparently out of all our injured players javi is the closest to a return and lamps has been pushed back a week or 2

Javi returns after the bye round.

Lamps out will keep hurting.

This is the problem with such a long season. Injuries will start to mount up. The fact our injury list has been so small is testament to the work done by the physiotherapists and medical support teams.

That means we won’t have Lampard, Eliopoulos, Mikkola and Lopez available for both Adelaide United and St Albans Dinamo matches next week.

As such, we go with the strongest starting XI against Adelaide United, and we need to start Skapoulas, Nkwomo and Swibel against St Albans Dinamo. The big mystery is Menelaou. Can he play at all on Sunday? Is he fit enough to be on the bench ? The Starting XI against Adelaide will have to find a way to back it up 3 days later.

However, there could be a hidden benefit to Mikkola, Eliopoulos, Lampard, Menelaou, Skapoulas and Lopez recovering from injuries. They will be fresh for the run into the last 3 rounds plus finals. It could prove to be a blessing in disguise.

Not how you want players to get a rest but it could work unintentionally.

Son of Sam said:

What was great about last night is that we have so much uplift to come with Juach and others getting better and fitting in to our system.

Click to expand...

100%

The team gets better with each match. All the new signings should have pretty much understood the coach’s game plan and system. Now we need Retre and Juach to get fitter.