It was a cold Friday night at Lakeside. Not a favourite of supporters by any means and understandably a smaller crowd came through the gates.

I got to the game uncharacteristically early and found a very comfortable social club warm with groups catching up before the game and enjoying food without the usual matchday rush.

I settled up in the grandstand with a few friends near the half way line and what unfolded shocked me. From the start South played fluid attractive football, using every arrow in our quiver to break down Hume. Long shots, crosses, long throws – you could have been forgiven for thinking we were the finals bound team on the night.

And then… a reminder. Two dangerous chances from Hume in quick succession nearly undid our hard work. The open header in front of an open goal left me with my hear in my mouth, but mercifully the header flew above the cross bar.

Undeterred though South stayed calm, confident and continued to take the game to Hume. Unlike last week’s effort against Dandenong though we actually had a forward line. Mikkola and Bonada were back, but it was Nagamatsu – our new striker from Eastern Lions who was the most impressive.

Ahead of the game there were question marks surrounding the Japanese striker. Could he handle the physicality of the NPL? Could he slot into the existing South line up?

Well, a few dangerous plays into the game, Hume obviously saw him as a danger, man marking him physically and often holding him back on the verge of throwing the guy around.

To his credit though Nagamatsu showed fantastic game sense – holding the ball when blocked and playing in others to create attacks, whilst dangerously shooting on goal when given space.

His strikers instincts finally yielded a moment of magic when at the 38th minute a spilled ball in the box was met by Nagamatsu who poked it past the keeper to give South a deserved lead!

It was something South had been missing all year… a true striker!

We were up 1-0 at the break and although we definitely dialed it down in the second half South continued to dominate.

In the second we were more content to hold back, play on the counter and managed to create a number of shots, whilst also containing Hume even better than we did in the first.

Nagamatsu came tantalisingly close to a second goal on debut when he missed a one on one chance but unlike previous games, there was a sense the second goal would come.

Unfortunately for us, it came for Hume. A very weak penalty was called late only for Hume to equalise to the shock and disappointment of the fans.

Yet another game we felt hard done by from the refs, and it appeared like much of our season we would fall short of another win – this time well deserved.

However the players who had been attacking all day replied instantly. A ball from the middle (yes I know) was collected by a man marked Nagamatsu who played it off to Painter-Andrews for the cross. Bonada met the ball at the back post and gave us the lead!

And that’s all she wrote! 2-1! A huge win and a great performance! There was plenty to enjoy, a new striker who had helped to bring our forward line to life and even a 150th game celebration for Jake Marshall to boot!

What was less enjoyable – and I hate to point this out – was how fans felt about the referee performance. We have not had a penalty this season. Nagamatsu was fouled multiple times whilst being marked, there was a red card shout that was waved away and even a push off play so outrageous it left fans baffled.

Another soft penalty (similar to the Oakleigh game) seriously could have derailed our season which is only just hanging on. Despite a win against Hume we still only find ourselves 7 (and potentially 4) points away from relegation.

Although our league position is in our hands our remaining fixtures are extremely difficult and the teams below us will pick up points to cut into our ladder position.

Next week we go to Dandenong City – a difficult but winable game which could unbelievably put us as an outside hope for the finals should we win, but may condemn us to a point above the relegation zone if we lose – how is this still happening?