South didn’t have much to play for here whilst Oakleigh on the other hand needed a win to seal a home final. Still, a decent crowd came to watch the game, and they squeeze into the older existing stand as the newer one wasn’t able to be opened in time, despite the rumours.

Despite an interesting opening 20 minutes, for the second time this season, Oakleigh were given the lead through a contested penalty. What happened? Well Oakleigh nearly scored on transition, but the ball was cleared off the line and then blocked on the follow up. Iwakami was deemed to have handled the ball and Joe Guest, once again scored from the spot.

What else could we do? 10 players on the pitch and with nothing to play for. South managed to maintain the scoreline to half time and gave almost as good as they got, but in the second half Oakleigh turned the screws.

At the 58th minute an intercepted ball at the edge of the box allowed Mcgilp to score from outside the box. At the 80th minute another intercepted ball (this time in the middle) triggered an Oakleigh counterattack allowed Salmon to put the result beyond doubt.

What can you do but laugh? After our incredible Dockerty Cup win our results have dipped. Out exhausted squad has played months of must win games and managed to get the job done in the most dramatic fashion. Once finals were off the agenda, we saw squad rotations and tough results against hungry teams.

We’ve conceded 11 goals in the past three games, numbers reminiscent of earlier in the year. But this isn’t earlier in the year, it’s near the end. We are safe, and we have bigger things to look forward too. The players deserve a rest, the fans deserve a rest, because before we know it, all the insanity will start again.