This Melbourne derby was a 6-pointer relegation battle. South in second last place, Knights in last place, fighting to relegate the other essentially. Thankfully, mercifully we came out on top, and as it stands are out of the relegation zone.

South started the game in a flurry with a rush down the left wing from kick-off and this pressure, seemingly part of the game plan continued. We crafted a chance in the first minute and barely 10 minutes later managed to score through a confident outside of the box finish from Pope.

The celebration though were somewhat muted, although Pope ran to the bench to celebrate I couldn’t help but notice players were holding back, knowing there was 80 minutes of play left. Well just a few minutes later Pope scored again, another shot under pressure this time in the box to double our lead.

This gave us a bit more confidence but clearly rattled the Knights. As the pressure built things became explosive when at the 35th minutes a brawl in the centre of the park saw the ref pull out a yellow card each for both teams and remarkably send off… Pope! 2 goals and a red in 40 minutes? How’s that for the highlight reel?

Well we managed to hold on until half time and gave ourselves to reset a little more defensively for the second half. With the team sitting behind the ball we made it hard for an already toothless Knights to sink their teeth in, and except for a few free headers we managed to secure the win and climb out of relegation zone (at least temporarily).

Lopez had a good game, and although Knights never really looked like scoring they did manage 22 shots to out 4. Jankovic also had a good game but the most interesting player development was Inglese who started not in defence but up top. With the team lacking depth and needing presence up forward this was some useful out of the box thinking, but perhaps won’t be as effective against more ruthless teams.

The red card may have played into our hands, helping us preserve the lead rather than throw it away in pursuit of another goal, and possibly helping us win the mental advantage against the also struggling Knights who would have been increasingly stressed out as their fans became more vocal throughout the game.

The Knights are in serious trouble now, we are too, but they look almost certain to be relegated. Perhaps where they have the edge though is their fixture. Our next few week are mostly against lower half opposition, meaning we need to secure points with our existing squad. We might find it hard to attract players later in the season if relegation is still looking likely and even then will need to face top four opposition in our last round. Our next few games against Victory and St Albans are crucial, anything less than 4 points is surely lights out for our season.

The Knights on the other hand (assuming the transfer window opens before round 18) will at least have a last ditch hail mary opportunity to bolster their squad and face St Albans, Dandenong City and Altona in their last few rounds. Either way though, with three teams going down this year, it’s almost certain that a former NSL giant will be playing VPL1 next year, I just hope it’s not us.

Well done boys on the win – there’s the tiniest glimmer of hope for us today.

A final note, understand the camera work of NPL games is often done by volunteers, but this match’s effort needed a little more polish. Wider shots and less movement would be appreciated!