Photo: Mark Avellino
Emotions boiled over at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex last night in the ‘NPL Title Bout’ between Bentleigh Greens and South Melbourne, which saw the former steal a late 3-1 win to go top.
It was a clash that had so much on the line and so it proved as the drama matched the occasion, in a game filled with red cards and a late comeback, heightening the tension of the occasion.
For coach Bentleigh coach John Anastasiadis, he tried for the most part to distance himself from the feeling of the contest and a slew of crowd comments directed at him and a Greens player at Kingston Heath, as tensions reached a tipping point.
“I played in Greece, where you have 40,000 people having a go at you so 10 or 15 people don’t hurt me. It’s part and parcel with the game,” Anastasiadis said in direct reference to the comments coming from the grandstand.
“You concentrate on what you’re doing and I kept my ears closed as much as possible, not in the end, but as much as I could have.
“The game was in the balance so there’s obviously a factor where they’ll try to get on the wrong side of you and you react, then you lose the whole purpose of the game.”
The game reached fever pitch after Tyson Holmes’ 92nd minute goal sealed the result in favour of the home side, which sparked rampant celebration from the dugout directed back at the grandstand.
This seemed to spark animosity between the Greens and the South Melbourne support, fuelled by the ties that both Holmes and Anastasiadis have with South Melbourne as former players/coach.
It wasn’t just rampant emotions off the pitch, as a red card was unsheathed for either side – the sixth game in succession between the sides to have seen a sending off.
Despite this, Anastasiadis remained staunch in his belief that the tie was a good advertisement for the round ball game in Victoria, and that the coin landed their way in a very tight contest.
“It was a very emotional game, a very passionate game by both teams,” he said.
“I thought it was a superb top-of-the-table clash, an advertisement for football. Both sets of players put their bodies on the line, but in the end we were the lucky ones that got the result. South had a very good chance at 1-1 [to put them in front] with the game in the balance.
“I don’t say we thoroughly deserve it but the fact we won the game and the passion the boys showed, at the end of the day one team had to win and it was us.”
A red card to Luke Adams for a challenge as the last man brought an end to his night late in the first half, with South holding a 1-0 lead courtesy of Leigh Minopoulos.
A loss would have seen the Greens slip to four points behind South with six games to play, not an unassailable margin by any stretch, but one that would’ve had their rivals well in the box seat.
Instead they answered the call and showed heart to snatch the full complement of points – however they struggled to match the tenacity of a 10-man South, clicking into action when the match levelled out after a sending off of their own.
“We talked about that at half-time, it’s a character building game today.
“They certainly showed that after going down to 10 men. Sometimes you have to understand that when you play 10 vs. 11 it gets harder for some reason, I don’t know why. Once we went down to 10 men, the boys turned it on.
“We pressed, we threw Matty [Thurtell] up there – he’s a goal scorer. I couldn’t be prouder of the boys, great character, but it’s only three points. There’s six games left, we know we’re going to be the hunted now, big time, so we’ve got to be at our best.
“We’ve got a few injuries and a few suspensions coming up so we’ve got to find something to get us over the line in the next couple of games.”
Kamal Ibrahim looks to be one such absentee, after his sending off in contentious circumstances; adjudged to have delivered a stray elbow to a South Melbourne player on his way off as a substitute just beyond the hour mark.
Anastasiadis pledged his support behind the reigning FFV Gold Medal winner, who has struggled to make any real impact at Kingston Heath this season, with injuries stalling his progress since making the move from Port Melbourne Sharks at the start of the season.
“[We’ll give Kamal] as long as it takes really,” he said.
“We know he is a quality player and Kamal has come to a club where success has to be demanded all the time. He has to understand that and I think he has.
“He was unlucky today, it was just one of those things that happen. We have a lot of games coming up, the cup games he’ll be a part of [barring suspension]. If he is, then we have to find someone else. We have 18 players, one is gone, one is injured.”
The Greens head coach is unsure whether they’ll contest the referee’s decision, revealing it is under consideration given the recollection of events from Ibrahim himself.
“We will look at it first and if we need to dispute it, we will,” Anastasiadis said.
“I don’t know what happened, but [Ibrahim] tells me that he turned around and accidentally hit the kid, who made a bit of a song and dance of it and the referee’s given the red card.”
Anastasiadis also provided an injury update on centre-half Ross Archibald, who is expected back within just four weeks after a successful surgery performed on his troublesome shoulder.