With 10 minutes remaining and as many men on the Lakeside pitch for Bentleigh Greens, the whistle blows.
Kamal Ibrahim is allegedly felled in the box and the referee points to the spot. It’s a lifeline for the visitors, who are down 2-1 to South Melbourne in a contest fit for an NPL Grand Final replay, full of goals, cards and momentum shifts.
Chris Lucas, one of the club’s most prolific scorers since joining last season, takes the ball to the spot. He assesses the situation, picks his spot in his head, and fires away. It’s a low strike towards the bottom right corner, but equal to the task is South custodian Nikola Roganovic, whose saves sends the Clarendon Corner into raptures.
Earlier on, it looked as though Bentleigh would emulate last year’s Grand Final and inflict another defeat on South’s home soil, with skipper Wayne Wallace’s strike just after the 20-minute sending the visitors on their way.
Kristian Konstantinidis scores from Brad Norton’s set-piece on the stroke of half time to square the ledger, and suddenly both team talks take on a different tone.
The match once again takes another turn when Dion Kirk is shown a second yellow card, and the hosts take full advantage of the extra man, netting via Matt Theodore in the 60th minute.
But the remainder of the contest sees Bentleigh continue to poke and prod at South, who despite their top of the table status, have had some vulnerabilities exposed in recent weeks – a defeat to Richmond, draw to Bulleen and a somewhat lucky escape against a 10-man Hume City highlighting their dip in form since scoring 12 times and not conceding in their opening four wins.
Despite the first miss, Bentleigh are handed another opportunity to snatch a point, with Lucas making amends for his earlier effort by winning another spot kick for his side. Troy Ruthven, a set-piece specialist with a penchant for a spectacular free kick, steps up to the spot grasping the ball.
Like Lucas, he takes a few breaths before lining up his strike. It’s a shot that ends up more towards the middle than any direction in particular, and Roganovic saves by diving to his right. Cue pandemonium in the stands in extra time.
The custodian single-handedly preserves South Melbourne three points as home, earning his side a lead of the same margin on the NPL ladder after both sides had earlier entered the contest on 13 points.
But the unassuming Roganovic didn’t delve into the details of his saves, instead focusing on the team’s collective efforts and emphasising the importance of the win in a tight race for the top.
“It was a six-pointer today, the boys are rapt and were looking forward to today’s game and got up for it,” Roganovic said.
“Bentleigh’s always going to be a tough opponent whether it’s 10 men or 11 men, I think we gave them too much respect after they got reduced to 10 men and let them come back into the game. We sat back and defended a little too much.
“Penalties are like a lottery, it’s 50-50. Unfortunately for Bentleigh, I kind of picked both penalties the right way and it was definitely a collective effort by the boys.
“I think you’ve got to stay calm and wait as long as possible, pick a side and commit, and watch the ball all the way through.”
It wasn’t just last year’s Grand Final that lingered in the memories of South players and fans, but the 2016 Community Shield also ended disastrously at Kingston Heath for the blue and whites. It may have essentially been a pre-season hit out, but nonetheless another result that went the way of the Greens, who hadn’t beaten lost to their rivals at all in 2015.
“It was obviously disappointing to lose last year and again in the Charity Shield,” Roganovic said.
“But I think we came into the game pretty confident, we stuck to our game plan and it helped a little bit that they got the red card in the second half.
“It’s a massive three points for the club and we sit top of the table. So we’ve just got to build on today and the season’s [conclusion is] a long way away.
An important sub-narrative mainly forgotten after the penalties was the maiden club goal for Konstantinidis, marking a triumphant return from long-term injury for the centre-half since joining from Northcote, and filling an important role after coach Chris Taylor’s decision to start the 23-year-old ahead of the skipper in the last fortnight.
South’s custodian stressed the importance on competition amongst the squad to motivate players to perform on the training pitch and in a game situation to retain their spot in the side.
“Eagar’s a massive player for the club. Bit of reward for KK for a lot of hard work over the last 12 months being out injured,” Roganovic said.
“It’s always good to have competition and our squad’s pretty competitive compared to last year, we’ve got a lot of depth and it’s only going to make us play better if there’s more competition coming through.”
No such selection dilemmas in South’s goalkeeping stocks, however, with Roganovic keeping a firm grasp on his number one status with a performance that has epitomised his form to date.