Neither South Melbourne nor Adelaide City Force would have been happy with the consequences of their 2-2 draw on Wednesday evening at Bob Jane Stadium as both clubs caught up their deferred round 25 game. The result makes it difficult for either side to claim a Finals berth as the season draws to a close, and gap to be made up is still significant.
The most satisfied onlooker on the night was Carlton assistant coach Fabio Incantalupo, watching the unfolding events from the back row of the Grandstand.
"It was a good game. But a terrible result - for both teams, I guess," said South Melbourne coach Ange Postecoglou after the match.
Goalkeeper Milan Udvaracz made a return to the side after a lengthy absence and the excellent form of previous number two keeper Chris Jones. Jones had failed a fitness test after spraining his back, meaning the tall Hungarian got back into first-team action for the first time since mid-December.
Just after the quarter-hour a sweet move played down Adelaide City's right side led to three City players lined up at the edge of the South Melbourne penalty-area outnumbering the now-strained South defence. Carl Veart touched it on to Aurelio Vidmar who was made the spare man in the play, but Vidmar shot wide with only Udvaracz to beat.
"If you want to give it to somebody (in that position) you give it to Vidmar," said Adelaide City coach Zoran Matic after the game. "I just can't believe (he missed). He was free, he could have walked it in. Even experienced players make mistakes."
Veart has been playing in a more withdrawn role than he has in previous seasons, and has been more effective as a result, much to the satisfaction of Matic. "He had a shocker last year - he was still up in the air (from his overseas playing experience) we had to get a parachute to get him down. But this year, I changed his position, and he started to perform. He's played well (whether) in the stopper's position, or in that last midfielder's position."
Vidmar's miss proved costly, as in the South foray that immediately followed, captain Trimboli opened the scoring with his second goal of the season, and to emphasise the rarity value, it was a header. Goran Lozanovski, seemingly up for this game from the start, had teased Nick Sabljak after receiving a ball down the right, waiting until Sabljak had been manoeuvred into marginally the wrong position before whipping in the decisive cross to Trimboli at the far-post.
Chances were spurned by both teams in the minutes which followed. Damian Mori was pushed wide by Udvaracz as Mori ran on to a diagonal ball, but only just enough to put Mori off his shot. Returning Olyroo Michael Curcija had a red-hot streak, the best of which was a stinging shot from an acute angle which City goalkeeper Adrian Cagalj got his finger-tips to push wide.
Against Adelaide City however, itself seeking Finals Series action, a one-goal South lead was never going to be enough. The equaliser was always threatened, but when it came, it came at the cruellest time for South, and in the most unfortunate of circumstances. The hard-working Bradley Hassell won a ball and let fly with a shot, but the ball deflected from a South defender and ran wide where Louis Brain chased it down, beating Udvaracz on the way. From the narrowest of angles, as he had by now reached the goal-line, Brian sent in a cross, hoping a City shirt was following up his endeavours. The unfortunate Fausto De Amicis however, turned the ball in at the near post for an equaliser one minute into first-half added time.
The goal was greeted with stunned disbelief by the sparse home support, reduced in numbers surely by their club's disappointing season.
And so it was with resignation that they accepted City's second, which arose from a well-worked Adelaide move begun deep and on a break.
Matthew Kemp, midway in his own half, played a perfectly-weighted through ball for Mori to run down in a chase he was always destined to win. Mori then sent over a cross to where Vidmar rose unchallenged to head home with the South defence comprehensively split.
But South scrambled back into the game within three minutes. A corner was earnt following South pressure. As it came over, a clear push on tall defender Robert Liparoti who had made the long journey from the backline for the corner, was seen by everyone but referee Jeremy Blaney. Before the crowd's baying had subsided, the half-cleared ball fell to Steve Panopoulos just outside the area whose first-time shot crashed into the net past the despairing dive of Cagalj.
Speaking of the push, Postecoglou said, "It was pretty clear-cut wasn't it? But Pana stuck it away well. The good thing about it was that were (behind) - the season's pretty much over - and it would have been easy for (the players) to stop and give up. But I thought we played out best stuff after we went 2-1 down."
"We shouldn't have conceded that second goal so early after we went 2-1 ahead. We needed five minutes cushion to settle because that's a very vulnerable time," said Matic.
Both teams had chances to re-take the lead in the remaining half-hour: Coveny put over after bringing down and controlling a route one ball from Lozanovski after great lead-up work from Trimboli.
Mori and Hassell had been combining well throughout the contest, and once again the double-act resulted in a shot from Hassell only just being palmed away by Udvaracz.
Then in a moment that would have stretched credibility, Con Blatsis, returning to the side following Olyroo duty in Europe, crossed to the far post only for Brian - himself the beneficiary of an own-goal earlier in the game - to turn it towards his own net, grateful at the last Michael Cartwright was able to clear it from the goal-line.
Although South's Finals chances are on life-support, Postecoglou wasn't giving up hope. "We faced the in-form team of the competition (tonight), and I thought we more than matched them. "We faced the in-form team of the competition (tonight), and I thought we more than matched them. If we can do that for the last six games and go undefeated - whatever happens as far as the Top Six - so be it. Everyone's talking about 52 or 53 points (to make the Finals). I think that's about right - if that's the case we need to win six in a row."
Matic too was focussing on the target of 52 points. "We've got 41 - we need eleven. We'll need more or less four wins (from the last six We'll need more or less four wins (from the last six games)."
But it was Incantalupo's smile that was broadest.