Image: Frank Khamees/Sportgraphy
“Making finals is the bare minimum and from there onwards there’s no real limit,” beamed Eric Vassiliadis following his side’s goalless season opening draw against the Oakleigh Cannons in February.
It was a positive start to 2016 on the road after a tough conclusion to 2015, in which a mid-season slump saw the two-time VPL Premiers win one of only 12 fixtures, undoing a strong start to the campaign that saw the Sharks collect 13 points from their opening six games, extinguishing finals hopes in the process.
The off-season saw the club lose two of their star players, with 2015 Gold Medallist Kamal Ibrahim and top goalscorer Nick Krousoratis depart the club for the Bentleigh Greens and Green Gully respectively. However, their losses were quickly forgotten by the arrivals of David Stirton (South Melbourne), Lambros Honos (Oakleigh Cannons), Jamie de Abreu (Bentleigh Greens), Bonel Obradovic and Jacob Eliopoulos (both Northcote City) and James Karvelis (Kingston City).
A pre-season which saw the Sharks suffer only a lone defeat was coupled with the arrival of 2013 Manager of the Year Goran Lozanovski, who was appointed as Vassiliadis’ assistant after leaving Northcote at season’s end.
Eleven rounds into the current campaign and finals were within reach for Port, who had collected 18 points and were in the thick of the top six race after their 7-0 drubbing of Richmond, featuring a hat-trick from Irishman Alan Mulcahy (who has ironically since departed the club for Rick Mensink’s side) and a double to Honos, who joined Ibrahim at Bentleigh three weeks later.
The departure of the two has corresponded with a drastic decline in fortunes at JL Murphy Reserve, which has seen the Sharks lose nine of their last 10 games. Their only victory in that period was a Jamie de Abreu-inspired 2-1 triumph against the struggling Melbourne Victory at Epping Stadium in early June.
A spot in the national stage of the FFA Cup was also on the cards back then, with Port Melbourne visiting the Melbourne Knights – the winner earning a place as one of Victoria’s four representatives in the competition.
However, all hope of that eventuating was dashed following a Marijan Cvitkovic brace, with the Knights doing the double over their defeated opponents in the league fixture the following weekend, which saw star striker Stirton given his marching orders for a crunching tackle on Nick Glavan.
His suspension was prolonged following comments he made towards referee Lewis Giuseffi in the aftermath of the sending off, leaving a huge hole at the pivot of the Sharks attack in the last few weeks.
Mid-season transfer arrivals were limited, with goalkeeper Luke Gavalas joining from Northcote to replace veteran shot-stopper Stjepan Gal (away on holidays) while youngsters James Goulopoulos (St Albans Saints) and Tyler James (Green Gully) were two additions to a player roster seemingly down on confidence.
Heading into the Round 21 crunch fixture against Lozanovski’s new-old employers (the former Socceroo re-joined Northcote as head coach following Port’s Round 8 victory over City), the Sharks had been kept scoreless in their five previous outings, much to the frustration of Vassiliadis.
Three points would have almost certainly guaranteed survival for another season for the club, moving 12 points clear of their opponents and 10 clear of Richmond in 12nd place with five rounds of remaining.
However, a 3-1 defeat – following another destructive Braedyn Crowley performance that saw the former Newcastle Jet grab a hat-trick – saw the two relegation contenders creep to within six points of Port, who are now found themselves battling to avoid the drop.
Speaking post game, Vassiliadis believed there were many positives from the Sharks second half performance, while stressing the importance of keeping their discipline in order to secure survival for another season.
“It’s important you maintain your discipline so they got some clear instructions post-game as it’s a disappointing result. But I thought our endeavour and attitude in the second half when we went a man down was a real positive for us, but I think in the end the game got out of our hands before we could really get into it,” he told the FFV podcast.
“The attitude was better in the second half, the fight, the will to win those little details and moments as we keep talking about, and to be fair, at 2-0 we could have easily got it back to 2-1 and it would have been a different ball game.
“Alec (Goodwin) had a one-on-one and then they went up and scored a third one. We cannot panic and just need to maintain our discipline mentality wise and keep working hard to drag ourselves out of a pretty tough time.”
To add salt to the wound, former Melbourne Heart winger Adrian Zahra was sent off and could miss the rest of the season, following a moment of madness where he appeared to head-butt James Papadimitriou in the second half on Saturday.
Two years ago, the Sharks achieved survival in dramatic circumstances when a 95th minute Connor Reddan equaliser – via a Honos assist – rescued their top flight status at the expense of the Ballarat Red Devils.
“I don’t worry about that [relegation battle], as the most important thing for us is to work on the mentality and make sure that’s right week-in-week-out and to not deviate from our physical plan,” Vassiliadis said.
“The points at this time of the year don’t lie as we are where we are, and we just need to get a result next week.”
If Vassiliadis and Port aren’t careful, they could find themselves facing the real threat of relegation on the final day when they visit Kingston Heath Soccer Complex to face Bentleigh Greens in a season which promised so much in the early weeks of the season.
The former Heidelberg United forward has done well to steer the Sharks from the third tier to the VPL in the space of three seasons, but faces another challenge in his young coaching career to try keep the club safe in the top flight.
With thanks to the FFV podcast.