South Melbourne roll on in their quest for the top 6 after Saturday night's professional performance winning 1-0 over Parramatta Power, through a 14th min strike by NZ international Vaughan Coveny.
With outgoing Head Coach David Mitchell strangely overseas at Feyenoord in the Netherlands for two weeks, also overlooked coach Stuart Munro was left to prepare the side for the top 6 challenge by South Melbourne. Without Ahmad Elrich who has been returning to form, and Les Pogliacomi, both overseas trialling, and Peter Bennett suspended for one match, the out of favour playmaker Lubo Lapsansky and Nick Orlic (who had done so well against Olympic) came back into the squad. The big question to answer tonight was: is this going to be the 'good' Parramatta' or the 'bad' Parramatta?
South Melbourne, making a late run for the finals, driven by the return of Paul Trimboli and Con Boutsianis, has looked a real prospect for the top 6 on their 2nd round form. The absence of Patrick Kisnorbo however, having just returned from overseas trials, would not help their cause. One wonders how the fans are expected to take the league seriously if the players and clubs don't! Something has to change!
So it was to prove as the mix of experience and youth in South's team oozed confidence on the ball and Power struggled to get through the well marshalled defence. Perhaps not the 'bad' Parramatta, but a team lacking the creativity to adjust to the different week-to-week challenges presented by their opponents.
Their lack of width was not solely due to the absence of Elrich, even if Steve Fitzsimmons had limited impact in his place, but only in the last 10 mins when Matty Langdon came on and Brett Holman was in the middle did they look like scoring. Earlier they were allowing themselves to be funnelled into the middle.
As the game got underway, both teams were out for attack given their league table places. In the 8th min Vaughan Coveny received inside the goal area off Con Boutsianis but his kick was into the ground and it bounced wide with Power keeper Liam Reddy sprawling.
In the 14th min Coveny again received on the left, and Tobin came in the close off his options. For some reason he hesitated and instead of the New Zealander obliging Tobin was turning out, he turned in and hit a powerful drive past a static Reddy and into the far right-hand side of the goal.
Power were finding it hard to penetrate but in the 16th min Steve Fitzsimmons made a good surging run on the right, beating two men but his cross to Zlatko Arambasic in the centre was poor. A min later Power's David Barrett got a nice ball over to Lubo Lapsansky but his header was weak.
Power was being held off from the danger zone so Barrett tried a strong header that was almost steered on target by Arambasic in the box. A few minutes later Steve Eagleton was denied a penalty as he bustled into the box, however referee Diomis had grounds for doubt.
South were also raiding and not sitting back, and in the 27th min Coveny hit a sweet cross from the left which bent around the mass of players in the box and was attacked by Radomir Sekulovski. His strong header was parried at close range by Reddy.
Boutsianis, not to be outdone in the shooting department hit a shot from 25m that was just wide of the right upright. In the 35th min Arambasic got into the area, and received a ball but could not tune under pressure. Power did little with dead ball movements but a curling corner on target from Damien Brown was hastily gathered by Michel Petkovic in the South goal.
In the 42nd min Sekulovski got in a cross from the right to Coveny on the left far post but he was closed down as he tried to head on target and the ball skewed away for a corner.
Parramatta came out in the 2nd spell with a bit more bite and in the 47th min Eagleton shot from 25m and it went only cm wide of the left post. Lapsansky took a free kick in the 58th min but although well hit, from 20m it just cleared the crossbar with Petkovic covering.
Boutsianis took a curling corner, and like Brown's earlier, it was on target, before Reddy palmed it just over the crossbar. In the 64th min Coveny blasted straight at Reddy after a great run on the counter.
Power was failing to use any width by this stage and all attacked were moving infield about 30m out. Most of this play failed to penetrate but in the 70th min Nick Orlic played a though ball that John Buonavoglia is 'made for', and Petkovic had to come out quickly to clear.
The substitution made by Power started to look fruitful when in the 72nd min Langdon swung a free kick from the left and it took anticipation by Petkovic to diffuse the situation. Orlic also got a nice ball into the area but Brett Holman was unable to reach it before the defence.
Damien Brown was pushing up more and he made a great run into the area and sent a cross across goal just out of Petkovic's reach but alas out of the reach of any of his slow responding colleagues.
A late flurry activity saw Peter Buljan totally free but shooting across goal, and Brown volley a shot from 20m but Petkovic positioned himself well.
An 89th min header by Barrett was far too wide and a through ball from Buonavoglia was chased by Eagleton who clattered into Petkovic just as Con made the final watch check.
Parramatta was best served by Damien Brown, David Barrett, Wayne O'Sullivan, and Nick Orlic.
South Melbourne's best were Vaughan Coveny, Steve Iosifidis, Mehmet Durakovic, Con Boutsianis, and some good work put in by youngsters Massimo Murdocca and Nick Tolios.
Parramatta coach Stuart Munro said after the game that "we had a disappointing first half, and we were very flat." "We started to have a go in the 2nd half". He admitted that they lacked bite and scoring goals was becoming a problem.
Eddie Krncevic, for South Melbourne, said, "we should have finished the game off in the 1st half." He agreed that they now are close to having a settled side, with good spirit, and with the return next week of Kisnorbo and Liparotti they are "in with a sniff of the top 6." "If we get into the 6 then there will not be many teams that will want to play us!"