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NSL: Spirit
Stun South National Soccer League - Round
4 - Saturday 12th October 2002 Northern Spirit christened their new, occasional, home of Brookvale Oval with a breathtaking 3-2 win over South Melbourne on Saturday night. There was little to choose between the two sides, overall, with the home team well on top in the first half and taking a 2-0 lead and the visitors dominating after the break, to claw back two goals and look close to snatching the win. Instead, a massive mix-up between seasoned campaigner Mehmet Durakovic and his keeper Dean Anastasiadis allowed young Spirit substitute striker, Jonathan Richter, to steal possession close to goal and take the ball through into an embarrassingly empty net in the 88th minute. The win was just what the doctor ordered for Spirit whose morale must have been low coming into the game, after suffering severe losses at its previous two games. South Melbourne began brightly and the Spirit boys seemed to be far more tentative. Once they found their rhythm, however, they soon began to make their presence felt and after taking a good early lead and extending it quickly they did begin to look the part. Superb finishing was their hallmark, with Noel Spencer asserting himself at the far post to power home an opening goal header into the top right corner, past a bemused Anastasiadis and John Hutchinson volleying beautifully from the left of the area, after a superb cross from Rob Trajkovski for the second. Skipper Andy McDermott, it was, who had supplied the cross for Spencer's header, a magnificent ball in, eluding everyone except the grateful Spencer, who showed much needed aggression in the six yard box. The first goal had come in the 16th minute and was well executed by McDermott and beautifully finished by Spencer. The second came in the 37th when Trajkovski received a nice pass from deep by Spencer, waited on the right for support in the middle and, when it came, played a lovely ball across to Hutchinson, whose finish was very smartly delivered past a flailing Anastasiadis. Sandwiched between these two goals was a very confident appeal for a handball by Michael Baird, as he rose to challenge Spencer on the edge of the box and a penalty was what the crowd had been expecting. Referee Simon Micallef waved play on, however, with his assistant, Stewart Lockrey, seemingly similarly unimpressed. Souths must have had a good talking-to at half time, because they looked a different team when play resumed. Spirit appeared to want only to defend their lead and this gave Souths all the room they needed to stretch their opponents and having scored from a free kick, via a glancing header from Pat Kisnorbo, in the 62nd, it really came as no surprise when they grabbed an equaliser, in the 85th, after some terrible Spirit marking, minutes later. The pressure had certainly been mounting up. As Souths began to press home their advantage and with the game moving into four minutes of stoppage time Trajkovski took off on a characteristic run down the right flank. His cross was regulation stuff for any defence, as it was a classic two defenders marshalling an area being attacked by only one opponent, yet a misunderstanding between Anastasiadis and, remarkably, the experienced Durakovic, gifted the ball to the prowling Richter, who had only to side-step the keeper and walk the ball into the net. It brought the house down.. The second half had begun so promisingly for the Melbourne side. That they gave it all away in this fashion would have made for many red faces and angry incriminations in the dressing room after the game. Peter Buljan, quiet in the first half, turned sharply and fired one at Paul Henderson in the 57th as Souths began to look a real threat during the early stages of the second half. Then a free kick, swung over from the left in the 62nd, saw Kisnorbo climb highest and steer a header cleverly into the bottom right corner of Paul Henderson's net. Apart from defending in numbers, Spirit looked most likely to prosper from young Richter's daring and fierce runs down the left and his willingness to take on defenders. The player did go close with a shot that missed the left post by inches in the 78th, but it was mostly Souths in this second period. The visitors grabbed the equaliser when a quick throw by Nick Tolios on the right was nodded back to the edge of the box for the waiting Buljan, whose crisp drive struck the centre of the net, sweetly, as Spirit defenders hung their heads in allowing the striker so much space inside their own territory. The Spirit boys looked as if they would be grateful to hang on for just a point by then and might have been considered fortunate to even do that. That is until the shocking blunder by the South Melbourne pair; a gaffe that will be discussed for a long time to come, by all who played a part in it and also by those who were there to see it with their own unbelieving eyes.
NORTHERN
SPIRIT 3 (N Spencer 16', J Hutchinson 37', J Richter 88') - Crowd: 2,823 MATCH STATS: NORTHERN
SPIRIT
: Yellow Cards:
A McDermott 74', R Trajkovski 83' SOUTH
MELBOURNE
: Yellow Cards:
V Lia 26', S Panopoulos 78', B Damianos 83' Referee: Simon Micallef 9/10 Pitch: 9/10 Game rating: 8/10 Best Players : 3 Noel Spencer (NS)
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