VPL: South Melbourne down and out

South Melbourne FC saw their hopes of a spot in the finals evaporate as they were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Bentleigh Greens on Sunday in Round 21 of the Victorian Premier League.

2012 premiers Dandenong Thunder extended their lead at the helm to ten points with a 3-0 win away to Green Gully while Northcote City, Richmond, Southern Stars and Moreland Zebras all picked up victories in the remaining games.

Oakleigh Cannons 0
Northcote City 2 (Kalifatidis 8′, 41′ pen)
Jack Edwards Reserve

Northcote City secured their place in the finals with a strong win over a rather poor Oakleigh Cannons on Friday night. James Kalifatidis increased his goal-tally for this season to nine with a first-half brace. Despite the loss Oakleigh remain in second place; only two points above Bentleigh Greens in third.

Richmond 2 (Visevic 77, Cahill 88′)
Melbourne Knights 0
Kevin Bartlett Reserve

Still with a sniff of finals football, Richmond went into their game with the Melbourne Knights needing a win and other results to go their way. The Eagles got the three points thanks to a wonderful free-kick by Daniel Visevic and a late goal from Tom Cahill. But in the end it wasn’t enough to keep their chance of finals football alive, with Northcote’s win over Oakleigh making it impossible for Richmond to secure a top-five finish.

Green Gully Cavaliers 0
Dandenong Thunder 3 (R. Vargas OG 37′, Foster 70′, 80′)
Green Gully Reserve

Dandenong Thunder proved far too strong for a 10-man Green Gully side on Saturday afternoon, with the newly crowned Premiers coming out 3-0 winners. Former Melbourne Victory defender Rodrigo Vargas scored a comical own-goal to give Dandenong the lead just minutes after his brother, Andy, was sent-off for a headbutt. The Cavaliers were able to contain the Thunder up until the 70th minute when Nate Foster scored his 10th goal of the season before adding another just ten minutes later to cap off the win.

Southern Stars 2 (Hesketh OG 61′, Gutler 87′)
Hume City 1 (Leech 18′)
Kingston Heath Soccer Complex

Southern Stars pulled off a brilliant come-from-behind win to end Hume City’s chances of a spot in the finals. Hume took the lead through former Stars player Mark Leech after just 18 minutes, and held onto their lead going into the break. But an own-goal by Steven Hesketh gave Stars an equaliser just after the hour mark, and it went from bad to worse for Hume as Isiyan Erdogan was shown a second yellow card. Southern Stars capitalised on their advantage to score a winner with just three minutes left to end Hume’s season in dramatic fashion.

Moreland Zebras 4 (Kaya 2′, 59′, Papadimitriou 77′, 89′)
Heidelberg United 1 (Alexovski 44′)
Epping Stadium

Former Melbourne Victory midfielder Grant Brebner celebrated his first win as a manager with his Moreland Zebras trouncing Heidelberg United 4-1 on Sunday afternoon. Ersin Kaya put the Zebras ahead inside two minutes before Saso Alexovski equalised right on the stroke of half-time. But Kaya restored Moreland’s lead on the hour mark, before James Papadimitriou added a third and fourth goal in the last fifteen minutes to round off the big win.

South Melbourne 1 (Vlahos 78′)
Bentleigh Greens 1 (Bulloch 90+4′)
Lakeside Stadium

With so much promise and expectation in the lead-up to the 2012 season, it’s fair to say South Melbourne’s campaign has been nothing but a massive disaster. With South 1-0 up and just seconds remaining on Sunday evening at Lakeside, their finals hopes were set to remain alive going into the last round of the season. But up steps Scott Bulloch with an equaliser in the fourth minute of added time, and there goes any chance of a finals appearance for South Melbourne in 2012. Not many people would have predicted that going into Round One.

Goals
17 – Luke Sherbon, Dandenong Thunder
11 – Nicholas Hegarty, Hume City
11 – Nate Foster, Dandenong Thunder
9 – Tom Cahill, Richmond
9 – James Kalifatidis, Northcote City
8 – Mathew Sanders, Green Gully Cavaliers
8 – Mark Leech, Hume City
8 – Scott Bulloch, Bentleigh Greens
7 – Ricky Diaco, Oakleigh Cannons
7 – Osagie Ederaro, Green Gully Cavaliers
7 – David Stirton, Southern Stars

Yellow Cards7 – Saso Alexovski, Heidelberg United
7 – Alan Mulcahy, Southern Stars
7 – Isiyan Erdogan, Hume City
6 – Steven Topalovic, Richmond
6 – Jonathan Voulgaris, Northcote City
6 – Kristian Konstantinidis, Northcote City
6 – Nicholas Marinos, Heidelberg United
6 – Liam Cannell, Richmond

Red Cards
4 – Melbourne Knights (Ben Surey, Tomislav Uskok, Shaun Romein, Marijan Cvitkovic)
4 – South Melbourne (Thomas Matthews, Trent Rixon, Shaun Kelly, Dimitri Tsiaras)
3 – Richmond (Liam Cannell, Michael Ferrante, Mate Eterovic)
3 – Southern Stars (Lean Williams, Ridvan Saglam, Halil Gur)
3 – Green Gully Cavaliers (Andy Vargas, Mile Medjedovic)
1 – Heidelberg United (George Papadopoulos)
1 – Bentleigh Greens (Jack Webster)
1 – Hume City (Isiyan Erdogan)

Round Twenty-Two Fixtures
Dandenong Thunder vs Richmond, 3pm Sunday 16 September, George Andrews Reserve
Hume City vs Moreland Zebras, 3pm Sunday 16 September, JL Murphy Reserve
Northcote City vs Green Gully Cavaliers, 3pm Sunday 16 September, John Cain Memorial Park
Bentleigh Greens vs Oakleigh Cannons, 3pm Sunday 16 September, Kingston Heath Soccer Complex
Melbourne Knights vs Southern Stars, 3pm Sunday 16 September, Knights Stadium
Heidelberg United vs South Melbourne, 3pm Sunday 16 September, Olympic Village