It felt a little like a loss at the end, but South’s recent draw against Dandenong City was in fact just another sign of the team’s vast improvement.

We headed down to the cold and dark corners of the South East to watch the boys, knowing that a win would propel us into an unlikely finals chase, and a loss could condemn us to another week of a fading relegation battle.

South had come off some great performances against finals bound clubs and with Ren Nagamatsu leading the line there was cause of optimism ahead of the game.

That optimism was vindicated when Nagamatsu won it wide and ran deep into the box to deploy a low ball across the face of goal. Mikkola ran onto the cross and tapped home a poacher’s goal to give us an early lead.

10 minutes later a South corner found Jankovic at the back post, who headed the ball across goal to Nagamatsu. Nagamatsu excellently volleyed the ball into the net, comprehensively beating the helpless defenders and goalie who watched on.

Disappointingly though, Dandenong responded just a minute later though an excellent looping direct free kick. It wasn’t exactly an embarrassing goal conceded from kick off, but it signalled City’s intent and gave them confidence they likely drew on later in the game.

However late in the first half South completed arguably their strongest half of the season with a third goal. Again, from a corner that found a back post header into the mixer, only to eventually be struck home by Halfpenny.

The 3-1 lead at the break though gave us a buffer we held onto for much of the second half, but unfortunately not long enough. As the second half went on our fatigue and lack of depth became evident. Dandenong played more of the game on their terms and our increasingly tired forward line lacked the legs to apply defensive pressure up the field or create attacking outlets.

Finally at the 85th minute City had their breakthrough. A poor shot from outside the box found the City striker instead who shot it away from an already diving Lopez. 3-2.

With the momentum, confidence, and seemingly the legs – Dandenong finished the game well and truly on top. A long ball into a crowded box was headed back out, only to find an oncoming City midfielder who hammered home a powerful equaliser. It finished 3-3 but only after a nervous final few minute.

The immediate emotion was disappointment, but if I was given a point at the start of this match, I would have taken it. South look a lot better than we did just a couple of months ago, and the fact we deserved the win on Friday against finals bound opponents is testament to that.

Nagamatsu is a player we have needed all season, and hopefully Menelaou settles into the squad to provide much needed depth in the middle. Reports suggest we have signed another Japanese player, however the club hasn’t announced anything yet. Overall though the players look more confident, the squad looks stronger, and the team is playing good football.

We may be a chance against Avondale next week, and you would think the team should beat Altona the following week to secure our safety, however we can only wait and see.

The other results this week went our way. Knights lost against St Albans (genuinely surprised), Victory lost convincingly to Green Gully and Port lost to Preston. If Knights lost their catch up game to Oakleigh (hmmm….) that will leave us 8 points clear of the drop with 5 games to go.

Some fans think we are safe already, I’m not quite so sure about that. What I am sure about though it the team looks better, and unlike the start of the season is actually fun to watch now.