By Steven Chang @Gixibyte

South Melbourne is back on track after a difficult week, claiming a 2-1 victory over Port Melbourne at Lakeside Stadium on Sunday evening.

In freezing conditions, the match began in a ponderous fashion, with Port Melbourne solidly holding its own against the more fancied wounded beasts of South Melbourne. 

The visitors’ determined efforts paid dividends when Zois Galanopoulos opened the scoring for Port Melbourne. 

He was played through following a clumsy turnover by South and pounced to capitalise on the opportunity, calmly placing a shot past South custodian Jason Saldaris to notch up an early lead for his side.

However, the former NSL giants fired back with an emphatic reply just moments later. 

English forward Jamie Reed neatly teed up Milos Lujic, who clinically struck the ball home to level the scores at 1-1.

After the early frenetic brace of goals, the two sides negotiated a probing period of football.

Lujic eventually intervened to break the dour interval of play when he rose high to nod a glancing header just inches wide of Stjepan Gal’s left post, the aerial attempt being South’s closest chance since its equaliser.

The towering striker was again involved just prior to half time, stretching to hit a volley off a lofted ball. 

However, Gal spread himself wide to deny South’s top goal scorer.

Late in the opening stanza, South were awarded a penalty as Stefan Nigro hauled down Iqbal Jawadi. 

The impressive Jamie Reed duly blasted the spot kick into the back of the net to put the home side ahead.

South emerged from the break firing on all cylinders. 

Mathew Theodore’s long range thunderbolt was the pick of the home side’s salvos, thwarted only by Gal’s diving save.

Reed and Lujic continued to display their mutual synergy, with a deft through-ball from the Englishman feeding his strike partner with a crisp opportunity, but he screwed his shot narrowly wide of the woodwork. 

Minor scuffles aside, the contest wound down with minimal fanfare and petered out to the final whistle, with South walking away the victors, claiming all three points.

South Melbourne coach Chris Taylor was relieved to take home a win after suffering a bitter Cup defeat during the week.

“I’m happy after a tough week for us. Disappointing about Wednesday. But at least we can put it behind us and focus on the league,” Taylor said.

Taylor was also satisfied that his recent squad rotation policy was paying dividends.

“We’re now at the position where we need to rotate and freshen people up and get them refocused. We need to start exploring the depth of the squad.”

His opposite number, Port Melbourne coach Eric Vassiliadis, was proud of his players but bemoaned the cost of his side’s inexperience.

“Disappointed. We wanted to get a result because we knew South were in a psychologically vulnerable position,” he said.

“We didn’t get the result. We didn’t play well either. So today was a double-whammy, if you want to call it that.

“We got the goal we wanted, but in the end, once again that common story of inexperience and errors in bad areas gave up the game for us.” 

MATCH DETAILS: 

South Melbourne 2 (Lujic 13’, Reed 41’ pen) defeated Port Melbourne 1 (Galanopoulos 11’) at Lakeside Stadium.

SOUTH MELBOURNE: 1. Jason SALDARIS, 2. Tim MALA, 4. Michael EAGAR, 7. Nick EPIFANO (27. Leigh Minopoulos 79’), 8. Mathew THEODORE, 9. Milos LUJIC (10. Tyson HOLMES 89’), 12. Iqbal JAWADI, 16. James MUSA, 17. Jamie REED, 25. Shaun TIMMINS (11. Bradley NORTON 73’), 77. Stephen HATZIKOSTAS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES: 6. Dimi TSIARAS, 21. Chris MAYNARD.

YELLOW CARDS: Milos Lujic (32’), Tim MALA (83’).

RED CARDS: None.

PORT MELBOURNE: 1. Stjepan GAL, 3. James RICCOBENE, 6. Chris GROSSMAN, 8. Zois GALANOPOULOS (4. Timothy PATON 77’), 9. Nicky MCNAMARA (23. Connor REDDAN 67’), 11. Nicholas KROUSORATIS (19. Anthony Ianchello 90’) 15. Stefan NIGRO, 17. Phillip RICCOBENE, 20. Milos RIDESIC, 26. Lambros HONOS, 27. Andrew MILICEVIE

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES: 16. Senesios FRANGOS, Anthony IANCHELLO, 22. Alexander CONNELL.

YELLOW CARDS: Nicky McNamara (61’). 

RED CARDS: None.

Image Credit: Cindy Nitsos