We rocked up to the game about an hour early. We parked a little walk away and passed the Preston social club on the way in. Fans were chanting and lighting flares. We were booed on our way in once they saw our South scarves.

South fans were located behind the goals near the car park entrance, while Preston fans occupied the remainder of the ground and entered via the gate near the grand stand. We grabbed a cevapi early and even then, still needed to wait 15 minutes in line. The crowd was building and we could tell it was going to be a big game.

It was announced as a sell out earlier in the day, although I suspect that this was always going to be the case as a way of capping the numbers and discouraging last minute trouble makers or traffic. As kick off approached the South end wasn’t as full as I expected however was still quite large, and had more room allocated to it then the prior comparable Cup game last year.

When the game finally started, after what seemed like an endless minute of silence, it wasn’t necessarily pretty watching. The first 10 minutes were scrappy, Preston were playing the better style of football and found a couple of chances on the counter, but South kept them scoreless. To be honest I’d say South would have been happy with the first half. They created a number of set shots and a few congested box plays, per the game plan, but the fans weren’t happy. Clean shots were non-existent and without a goal to cool things down, fans went into half time frustrated, thankful that at least Preston didn’t score.

At half time the food stalls were packed and the hill was full of conversation. The second half seemed to start a little more brightly, with South carving out a few more chances and holding the ball, but at the 54th minute, Pithoulas, the second keeper who replaced an injured Lopez was pressured in the box with the ball at his feet, failed to clear the ball and took down a Preston player. He earned himself a red card and a penalty. The poor kid had just seemed to start finding his feet in the game but the pressure from the Preston end was clearly too much.

Preston scored the penalty and effectively iced out the game. South were forced to be more discerning with their direct plays but often found Preston returning the ball quickly on the counter, overwhelming our undermanned defence. We were lucky not to concede more to be honest, but we could only hold on for so long. At the 81st minute, Preston doubled the lead which they held to the final whistle. Moller came on late to the dismay of fans, but he wasn’t able to make a difference against a flying Lions squad. Preston 2 South Melbourne 0.

That’s eight goals conceded in three games now, and we face next week’s opponent with our third choice keeper set to start. South are in a slump, and our style of play is lacking the effectiveness it had last year when Sawyer led the line. The form is dipping, the fans are turning their heads down, and we face a Dandenong Thunder in good strength and fourth on the table. I know it’s only early in the season by the fans need to see some green shoots. The opportunity to earn some good will by defeating the arch rival has passed the team now.

In off-field updates from the game though, many positive headlines have circulated in the wider football media. The South fans were excellent, the Preston fans were excellent (except for some offensive chants that I think is fair to say would confuse Hume City supporters) and over 9,000 people in total rocked up. Is it a good sign for the Australian Championship? For sure, but I think it says more to Preston than anything else, to me South were almost a footnote in this page of Victorian football folklore, and if the Board wants the club to be more involved in the actual story it needs to acknowledge that there’s a lot of work to be done to improve the style of football and bring more fans through the gates at Lakeside.