Image: Smile for Peter
Having done it all in Victorian football, there’s very little that seems to faze Chris Taylor, our NPL Manager of the Month for April.
And having a thick skin is an important trait when managing a club like South Melbourne, its NSL history and A-League ambitions ruffling plenty of feathers in the Australian football divide.
Beyond the results – and there has been plenty to scrutise on that front – come the ever-growing distractions off the pitch. The constant media speculation. The links to big names to strengthen A-League credentials. If it were up to the club, it would be gracing the A-League with maybe a Didier Drogba on the pitch or Roberto Carlos on the sidelines.
Taylor shrugs it all off and gets on with the job. His record – multiple NPL premierships, a championship and Dockerty Cup – speaks for itself.
Many detractors would have enjoyed the schadenfreude when the A-League aspirants were sitting in the relegation zone early in the season when South had no access to their home base and results subsequently suffered. There were calls for Taylor’s head, which seems to happen often any time the team dips in form.
Yet if a week is a long time in football, a month can be seem like an eternity. That poor run of form has long been forgotten with South now a point away from finals contention as teams around them continue to drop points.
A 4-4 draw with Green Gully (who also had an unbeaten month, for which much credit belongs to caretaker Brian Vanega), essentially snatching a draw from the jaws of victory, would be the only time South dropped points for the month.
The first win came against North Geelong, a scrappy but welcome three points to mark their return to Lakeside. Next was the derby against Melbourne Knights, a game in which everything seemed to fall South’s way. Milos Lujic couldn’t buy a league goal in open play before that game, but out of nowhere his lob from distance became one of the goals of the year – whereas Knights kept spurning their opportunities. Marcus Schroen sealed the win with a lovely free-kick.
The Hume clash was an important result given that City were on a four-game winning run (all 1-0 wins), but South managed to turn the tide and beat Hume at their own game. Then came a 3-0 victory over Pascoe Vale, one of the early high-flyers of the league who have since dropped off slightly.
Make no mistake, the wins haven’t all been pretty, nor have they been convincing, but a hallmark of Taylor’s is a steady defence which has shone this month. Led by the rearguard of Kiwi duo Luke Adams and Michael Eagar, the latter especially has roared back to life after injury-effected recent times.
Now in May, arguably the biggest test of this run of form comes tonight against Bentleigh Greens, where South are back on the road against a side that’s had their measure for the last couple of seasons in head-to-head meetings.
There will also be the small matter of an upcoming Round 7 FFA Cup clash against Dandenong City in the near future. A win would mark South’s return to the national stage, prompting, one would imagine, a whole new wave of media attention.