Avondale lost to Heidelberg last week.. and badly, going down 3-0 early and only managing a single consolation goal to save face. Am I happy to see them lose? Sure. Am I happy knowing Johnny A did that to them? Look, it would have been great to have him at the helm and it does sting a little to think about the team that South could have been if he joined at the start of the season. On Anastasiadis quickly, it is an indictment on the current Australian football environment that he hasn’t been given a senior professional gig. He won South our first championship out of the NSL, turned Bentleigh into an NPL powerhouse and helped build Western United’s A-League championship winning side – what else does he have to do? For all this talk about how Ange was overlooked, you can’t help but feel Anastasiadis has been put into an ‘NSL’ box, or more likely, a ‘Melbourne box’.

Anyway, back to Avondale, the loss leaves the club with 9 points from their last 5 games, which is hardly a form slump but it is the ‘worst’ they have been as of late. Does this mean they will look to bounce back against South? Gosh I hope not, we can’t face them with any more motivation then usual. Avondale are relentless, they have scored 31 goals in 11 matches this season and conceded only 11. They’re goals have come from many sources too with eight of their players scoring at least twice this season. Two South Sudanese internationals lead the charge though in the form of Kur Kur and former South player Manyluak Aguek.

Will our defence hold up? Generally it might. South’s defensive player stocks are strong and they absorbed pressure well last week against Green Gully, particularly late in the game when they faced counter attacks whilst outnumbered. The issue will be our midfield…

Defensively, it was our midfield that lost the ball and the subsequent player tracking that led to the Gully goal, and attacking wise our midfield is poorly stocked against the might of Avondale. Avondale have mastered possession football through the middle, our midfield was barely used until Esteban left the club.

Can we learn anything from Avondale’s recent loss though? Well by all accounts Heidelberg’s wingers did an aboslute number on Avondale, with speedy runs in behind. We simply don’t have these weapons. Brennan, although a solid player and a good cross in, does not have the pace to run in behind like he once did, and as good as Mells can play the ball he lacks the support in the midfield to gain possession in dangerous positions against a team with a strong Midfield like Avondale. It might be a case where we play for a draw… I don’t see another way out of this game with three points… even a return to Estaball isn’t on the cards without a key striker and the return on Bonada from injury is still clouded in mystery.

Bonada would be a huge in, but so would a new coach. Apparently Minopoulos received another yellow against Gully which will suspend him for this game, leaving Tyson Holmes to potentially coach us through this, unless of course we hire a proper coach, but let’s be real here that probably won’t happen.