In what for many years has been Melbourne's most keenly contested fixture - the derby game between South Melbourne and Melbourne Knights - was running true to form with a tight and scoreless first half, but burst into life from the hour mark after which time South scored three times without reply to notch up another comfortable home win.
The scoring began when John Anastasiadis netted with a spectacular header after a clever diagonal ball was struck by Jim Tsekinis on the right perfectly for Fausto de Amicis on the left who in turn crossed sweetly to Anastasiadis at the far post. It was a move completed with such speed and accuracy that it would have caught out the best defence.
But the next two were much more defendable. Vaughan Coveny - only introduced to the action from the substitute's bench three minutes beforehand - extended the lead heading home a long Nick Orlic free-kick which Knights' keeper Martin John came for but never reached, after 70 minutes.
And as if to point out to coach Ange Postecoglou that he should be on from the start in South Melbourne's next match, the big Kiwi wrapped up the game with his second, seven minutes from time, also from a header. Knights' keeper John would not have been pleased with this one either, as Coveny out-jumped him from a standing start inside the six-yard box to convert a well-flighted Tsekinis cross from the right.
South coach Ange Postecoglou had left Coveny out of the starting eleven in this game as in the last against Marconi in an attempt to spark him up. "Vaughnie played the first four games. He was working hard enough, but he wasn't getting into the right areas to score goals. I felt we needed to take him out of the action. I was hoping that last week he'd come on and maybe get a goal and (regain) a bit of confidence, but it didn't work out - but it did this week."
"He's obviously a very good player and he had a great season for us last year. Hopefully he'll get some confidence from that. John Anastasiadis (who was brought off for Coveny) had an hour and is getting stronger, and he got a goal as well. The key to our success is that we have a number of forwards who score goals regularly."
So what had promised so much for the struggling Knights, matching their more highly placed rivals for all of the first half, had come to nought, and will cause Knights' well-respected coach Joe Biskic to wonder what it will take for Knights' previously fearsome reputation to be restored.
"We can't afford to give away anything (at home) from now on, otherwise we'll be in deep trouble," said a disappointed Biskic after the game.
"We did really well in the first half - I was really pleased", Biskic said. "But we made some errors at the back, and that's what cost us the game."
Biskic didn't want to point the finger at young goalkeeper Martin John, thrust into National League action as a result of the controversial early-season departure overseas of Knights' Olyroo keeper Joe Didulica, but clearly he rued John's inexperience which played a part in Coveny's double.
"I don't want to criticise him. He's still young, he's got his future (in front of him). (But) when you play against South Melbourne, you need a bit of experience, and we haven't got that - that's why we fell."
South Melbourne's experience quotient was close to being reduced when midfield-general David Clarkson was lucky to escape a second booking 39 minutes in, after an off-the-ball clash with Adrian Cervinski right in front of the referee, the stand-side assistant, and the fourth official. Clarkson had been booked early in the game, and it was a surprise to find the incident produced no further card. As Clarkson is such a key player in the South engine-room, were he to have been dismissed, the game's balance would have tipped Knights' way when it was, at that time, a contest either side had a fair claim to winning.
But it was another of South's almost endless stream of hard-working midfielders - Jim Tsekinis - who was to stand out in this encounter. Often Tsekinis has only a cameo-role to fill, entering the contest as a second-half substitute for one of South's marquee-name players - Goran Lozanovski, Paul Trimboli, or Vaughan Coveny - all internationals of repute, and often rested after their initial involvement had made a game safe for South.
This time Tsekinis started - the continuing absence of Lozanovski and Trimboli somewhat forcing Postecoglou's selection hand - but he grasped his opportunity with alacrity and flair. Tsekinis' involvement was critical in the first and last of South's goals, and Postecoglou was full of praise: "I thought he did really well - he had a hand in two goals, and also had to work very hard defensively for us. I thought he had a very good game."
It had taken a while for Tsekinis to settle in at South since his transfer at the beginning of last season from the now defunct Adelaide Sharks. Tsekinis had been a key player at Sharks, despite his youth, and found himself a new boy at a club where he struggled to get game time during his first season. But his enthusiasm and keenness to do well never dimmed, and he will now surely be a more regular name on the team-sheet.
For Knights, Cervinski was lively up front, often drawing South's tall defenders out of position and creating space for others, as well as delivering finely-judged flicks and passes.
In the first half especially, Cervinski and Zelko Susa looked dangerous when in possession, but too often Knights' moves would break down as a result of the Knights' players' desire for an extra touch, when an earlier delivery might just have sprung the lock. Maybe there's been a reduction of Knights' self-belief after the last few seasons which look so bare in comparison to those of just four or so years ago.
But in the end it was South's relentless possession play combined with its extraordinarily good home record and its deeper playing squad which won the points for South.