In a word this match was devastating. A three one loss, a late red card to Jankovic and South now find themselves properly towards the bottom of the table.

South were playing for more than just a ladder position though. In the past month the club has lost three games, drawn one and scored just once. Pressure is mounting on Esteban Quintas to turn around form and the fans are increasingly frustrated now that the team’s ugly style isn’t even justified by good results.

We headed to the game with issue three of our fanzine and distributed copies to fans before the game. We should have stayed out longer – right from kick off South weathered a dangerous attack from Dandenong which nearly put us down right from the get go.

Dandenong had the better of the play and were eventually rewarded with a goal at the 21st minute from Atherinos. The goal was built up from the back and Dandenong managed to find three clear passes through the non-existent South defence. Athernios then struck it from outside the box for the goal.

Luckily for South an equaliser from Harding late in injury time saw us hit the sheds tied 1-1. South goal was in some ways the opposite of Dandenong’s. A goal kick deep into the attacking half spilled out to the wing where South crossed it perfectly in to find Harding in the box. It cut the midfield but from the sky not on the ground as Dandenong’s build up was.

In the second half Dandenong took advantage of their early chances, and at the 60th minute Bower collected the ball on the wing from an counterattack and rounded Lopez who was caught out in no-man’s land. The goal gave Dandenong the lead and destroyed any hope left for South.

South looked depleted and increasingly desperate as the game went on. Throwing players forward who refused to run back, finding themselves exposed defensively multiple times and then once again Dandenong made the most of a defensive lapse and scored at the 89th minute putting the game beyond doubt. Another through ball cutting the non-existent South midfield found two Dandneong players up against a thin South defence and Plant was simply too good, scoring for a 3-1 lead.

As though to remind us that things could get even worse, just as all hope was gone, Jankovic received a second yellow for a completely unnecessary altercation with the Dandenong defence. He was fortunate enough to leave early, we stayed to the final whistle.

South now have 1 point from 5 games, 2 goals from 5 games and are 12th on the table. That’s right – 12th. Amazingly we have yet to play any of the top three teams and we now have games against Heidelberg, Oakleigh and Avondale to look forward too.

Somebody stop the rot. Make this terrible form end.