Image: South Melbourne FC
FFA Cup action continued last night and it was both South Melbourne and Port Melbourne who prevailed over NPL2 opponents North Geelong Warriors and St Albans Saints respectively to progress through to Round 7.
North Geelong Warriors were outdone 0-2 against a South Melbourne outfit who were seeking redemption from a recent poor run of results in NPL Victoria tonight at JL Murphy Reserve.
Micky Čolina’s men were also seeking redemption after they fell short to sister club St. Albans Saints in the previous NPL2 Victoria West Round.
Lighting complications prevented the Warriors from hosting the Round Six Qualifier at Elcho Park, with FFV relocating the high-profile match to the home of Port Melbourne.
South had the majority of the chances straight from kick-off, with North Geelong custodian Daniel Zilic forced to make a point-blank save after a goal-bound header in the 15th minute from the determined Milos Lujic, who was desperate to write his name on the scoresheet.
A driven shot from the left foot of Bradley Norton in the 28th minute kept Zilic on his toes as the effort from the fullback merely sailed over the crossbar.
Two chances at either end right before half time caused a few skipped heartbeats in the terraces as Kene Eze laid off a ball to forward Matt Thorne, who slotted the ball through on the wrong side of the post.
At the other end, a goal-line scramble saw the ball get cleared off the line to the feet of Lujic, who also drove the ball through on the wrong side of the post.
Another end-to-end play saw the deadlock broken as Nicholas Jurcic found the back of the net in the 61st minute – only to be found offside – before the ball was stolen down towards the other end, where Lujic made no mistake of making the JL Murphy Reserve net bulge.
Lujic then found himself on the assistor’s list when a play in the 82nd minute saw Lujic nod the ball across the goal to Matthew Millar, who neatly finished the ball to make it 0-2.
South now focus their attention to Round Seven of the qualifiers – in arguably the match-up of the Qualifying Round – against Bentleigh Greens.
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In the other fixture which took place at Knights Stadium, underdogs St. Albans Saints weren’t going down with a fight, although it wasn’t to be as Port Melbourne left it until late to progress themselves that little bit closer to the FFA Cup.
The Sharks were left to rue their countless squandered opportunities when midfielder Josh Knight finished a well worked counter attack – in the 21st minute – to send the advantage to the underdogs.
Adrian Zahra then slotted away from short range to settle the advantage in the 32nd minute.
A 20-yard free kick from James Riccobene left Saints shot-stopper Dilen Ibrahim ball watching as he simply scraped the ball over the heads of the Saints’ wall and slotted it through the near post of Ibrahim.
The 47th minute effort was enough to give the Sharks the edge, until Knight completed his brace 35 minutes from full time – setting up a grandstand finish at Somers St.
Late drama saw a penalty awarded to the travelling team in the 89th minute, which was neatly finished around the keeper by former South Melbourne attacker David Stirton to set the scoreboard to 2-3.
The results mean that South have set up a mouthwatering clash against Bentleigh Greens away in the next round, while Port Melbourne will take on Melbourne Knights, also away.
Kingston and Richmond are still in the dark about their fates, with their fixture postponed after floodlight issues at KB Reserve on Tuesday, with the winner to travel to Hume City.