Photo: Bentleigh Greens
A night of four fixtures in the top flight was headlined by Bentleigh Greens’ exciting 3-1 win over South Melbourne at Kingston Heath in a highly charged and eventful encounter, which now sees the Greens take the league lead.
It proved to be the sixth consecutive contest between the clubs that yielded a red card – two in this case – while it continued the Greens’ ascendancy over South this season, beating them now in the Community Shield, FFA Cup and the league at home, with Nikola Roganovic saving South’s blushes in a home league win earlier in the season.
Elsewhere, Heidelberg United, Oakleigh Cannons and Pascoe Vale all brushed aside their respective opponents 1-0.
At Kingston Heath, however, it was South Melbourne who started brightly despite missing Milos Lujic, Tim Mala and coach Chris Taylor all to suspension.
The lead came in the 28th minute via a run into the box from Marcus Schroen, whose cutback into a dangerous spot was eventually bundled over by Leigh Minopoulos.
The night for the visitors becomes more precarious when Chris Lucas got in behind and in on goal, with Luke Adams’ challenge deemed to have been denying a clear goalscoring opportunity and red card-worthy.
South Melbourne held off well, but it was a seemingly advantageous position to the club that ended up costing it.
In the 55th Kamal Ibrahim was brought on to replace Ryan Paczkowski, however after lashing out at an opponent, he was sent off with a straight red.
If it was to have any effect it was a positive one, as a 10-on-10 situation saw the Greens score three goals in quick succession.
It was Ross Honos’ set-piece that found Jack Webster for a headed goal in the 79th minute.
South still looked content with a point given it would conserve its position at the top of the ladder, however the game was turned on its head when another substitute in Matt Thurtell found the back of the net to score his fifth goal in consecutive games when Lucas found him for a clinical finish.
It was then party mode for the Greens as Tyson Holmes, the recipient of the usual jeers from his old club’s fans on the sidelines, sealed the 3-1 result and send his side into raptures.
Elsewhere, each other game saw a 1-0 result.
Oakleigh Cannons kept pressure on the leading pack with a fairly regulation 1-0 win over Melbourne Victory Youth.
In a game where chances weren’t in abundant supply, the Cannons had denied Victory from getting on the front foot in the first half without reward.
Then it was Dusan Bosnjak who burst through the middle with a positive run forward, passing off to Dimi Hatzimouratis and following into the box, where he was on hand to drive home the goal after pouncing on Lucas Spinella’s initial save to deny Goran Zoric.
John Maclean forced a save from John Honos soon after, but that arguably the closest the visitors came to an equaliser.
Richmond hosted Pascoe Vale but did their survival chances no favours with a 1-0 defeat.
Luka Prelevic provided his first warning shot in the 28th minute with a shot from distance that forced Tony Foglia into a save.
It wasn’t the first nor the last time the keeper was called into action, but he couldn’t do much to deny Prelevic’s 59th minute strike from sailing into the goals, with the Kiwi international catching the ball sweetly.
While Naigoran and Caniglia presented some opportunities on goal throughout the game, Pascoe Vale held on for the clean sheet and the win, which puts them closer to the top six than the relegation battle that they looked to be entrenched in not long ago.
It’s now five games unbeaten for Paco, including four wins in that run.
And finally, Heidelberg United rounded off the 1-0 score lines with a narrow win over Port Melbourne Sharks.
After the home side had threatened with opportunities to the likes of Alan Kearney, Erhan Yalaz and Jamie de Abreu, it was Sean Ellis with the chance to put the visitors up via a penalty before the break.
He made no mistake, beating Luke Gavalas diving to his left.
It was almost two after the break when a defensive error allowed Reuben Way through on goal, but his effort was thwarted by the custodian.
Heidelberg then did well to see out the remainder of the game, taking a welcome three points on the road to keep in touch with the top two.