Two penalties - one just before the end of the first half, the other just before the end of the second half - were enough to have South Melbourne and Wollongong share the points in the Round 15 game at Bob Jane Stadium brought forward to the Thursday night before Christmas.
The game was brought forward as a result of South Melbourne's forthcoming presence in the World Club Championship in Brazil.
Wollongong opened the scoring after 37 minutes from the most innocuous of beginnings. A high ball was played into South's penalty-area with no Wolves player close to where it was dropping. David Clarkson let it fall, then as it rose, cleared it over his own goal-line with his shoulder. Upon the advice of the grandstand-side assistant referee Rick Arturi, referee David Dwight awarded Wolves the penalty.
Stuart Young stepped up and placed it to the left of Chris Jones. Until then, Jones had scarcely been involved in the game.
It was a decision that mystified the small home support, and South coach Ange Postecoglou. "I couldn't see it, it was the wrong side of me. I think the linesman gave it. Well, there were half-a-dozen that he missed (so) it must have been really obvious for him to give that one."
Wolves coach Nick Theodorakopoulos was having none of that, puzzled instead by another aspect of the decision. "I thought it was hand-ball. But if it is hand-ball, why (didn't Clarkson) get a card?" Theodorakopoulos was reluctant to comment further on this question. "I'm on this bloody bond. I've got to be careful (in what I say)."
The tables were turned just three minutes from the end of normal time when Dwight adjudged a Wolves defender to have handballed in the area and Michael Curcija levelled from twelve yards.
"Let me just say that the (Wolves players) want to know what the penalty was for, and I'll leave it at that," said Theodorakopoulos.
The fluent South Melbourne of last season would have been able to overcome this disadvantage, but this is an off-song South Melbourne, and one battling in the unfamiliar surroundings of the lower half of the table.
"I thought the last half-hour was good", said Postecoglou, using the curate's response, and concentrating on the positive. What was apparent was that the opening hour was certainly not good for South Melbourne. Links which were in earlier times second-nature, were now not being made. The ball was being turned over too cheaply, and Wollongong were the team more likely to take the points from the game.
Anthony Magnacca was brought into the starting eleven in place of the suspended Goran Lozanovski, but looked uncertain, conceding possession a number of times in the first half. But it would be unfair to single out just one South player for this criticism, as the passing was wayward and the understanding was off in most parts of the formation for much of the game.
"Where we are at the moment, a point is better than none," said Postecoglou. "(It's) a point against the team in third position, and they're not there by accident. They're a good side. It's not ideal, but it's better than what we've had over the last couple of weeks."
It's a point South looked unlikely to earn for most of the game. And especially in the early part of the second half, when Wolves had two great opportunities to advance the lead, South were under performing, and can consider themselves fortunate to have remained in the contest at all.
Shortly after the re-start, Antony Surjan headed over from directly in front after clever work down the right by Paul Reid.
Only minutes later, Matthew Horsley and Young combined well to get behind South's defence, and Young's shot was only narrowly past the far post. Gaps were opening up on the wings for Horsley on the right and Neil Harlock down the left.
But in the last half-hour, South piled on the pressure, and eventually it told on the beleaguered Wolves defence.
Midway through the second half came South's best chance yet to draw level. It was a flowing move that was previously commonplace at Bob Jane, but its rarity in this game served only to emphasise how things had changed. Clarkson took possession just inside his own half and galloped goalwards with Curcija supporting down the right. Clarkson laid the ball off to Curcija who in turn sent over a perfectly weighted cross to where Vaughan Coveny rose to head, but only onto the outside of the post.
Coveny had another opportunity when he managed to work his way into a one on one with Pogliacomi which the tall goalkeeper won.
But it was confusion in the Wolves' back-line which was to result in South's late leveller. Following sustained pressure which was never convincingly cleared, the referee spotted a Wolves handball. Curcija stepped up and coolly converted, saving South supporters the need to check their archives to discover the last time South lost three in a row.