South Melbourne was looking to consolidate their lead at the top of the NSL before the start of this game at Bob Jane Stadium on Saturday night. Wolves came to Melbourne not having lost in their last five fixtures.
Right from the start of this game South Melbourne seem to have the upper hand but were not able to convert any of the clear cut chances they had in front of an impressive Wolves goalkeeper Andrew Crews who was a constance thorn in South Melbourne's side.
South Melbourne's main attacking option came from the wing back Sam Poutakis as each time he attacked the Wolves defence they looked venerable.
Then totally against the run of play South Melbourne went 1-0 down. Some undisciplined defending by the South Melbourne led to Wolves getting a free kick 12 min into the first half and Nahuel Arrarte stroked the ball home into the top corner of the net.
Once again South Melbourne where almost level but the goal scored direct it seemed from a corner taken by Boutsianis was disallowed by referee assistant for foul play whlist the corner was being taken.
On the 20 min mark south's had the chance to draw level again through a penalty for a hand-ball in the box. The penalty was put away by Coveny but the crowd's joy was short lived as the referee made the South Melbourne captain take the penalty again and this time Wolves goalkeeper guessed which side to dive and made a good save.
Chance after chance went begging for the league leaders and still they could not convert any of them
Paul Trimboli came on for south's in the 61st min for Tunbridge. Finally and with some relief for the South Melbourne fans they managed to get level with a goal in the 67th min by Boutsianis. A good cross played into the penalty area was headed forward by captain Coveny and Boutsianis did the rest.
The scores only stayed level for around ten minutes before Wolves went in front again this time through Chimaobi Nwaogazi who scored with a superb volley This was his six goal in a row for the Nigerian import.
Four minutes later South Melbourne were back on level terms in this exciting encounter. Captain Vaughan Coveny was the scorer this time. Another ball in from the wing and Coveny did the rest with his head 2-2 with only around 10 minutes to go.
After all the passion of this game there was still one more final move from the Wolves. They broke quickly through Tanju Balabanel who ran straight at the South Melbourne defence leaving all the South Melbourne floundering and as he shot it took a deflection of a defender and left South's goalkeeper no chance whatsoever and send the three points back to NSW.
"We were very naïve in giving away the free kick," said Munro "very, very naïve." It's a sore way to lose a game," said Munro. "We did our job as far as creating goal scoring opportunities, but we didn't get them."
Wollongong coach John Turner said after the game. "Once we led we were always going to sit and cop the pressure. South had umpteen more chances, but we took ours."