South Melbourne FC celebrate third consecutive win in the NPL

By Bill Roumeliotis.

South Melbourne FC was the big winner of the Victorian National Premier Leagues (NPL) on Monday, beating Hume City 1-0 at Lakeside Stadium.

The Blue and Whites of Esteban Quintas reached three wins in as many games and are fat the top of the NPL standings.

In the 8th minute of the match, and while the goalkeeper of Greece Javier Lopez had blocked the ball with an exit, the captain of Hume, Josh Bingham, with a deliberate hit seriously injured Lopez who after five minutes left and was taken to the hospital.

An offense punishable by a straight red card, but the referee of the match, in consultation with the linesman, spared Bingham and showed him a yellow card, a decision that caused the 800 or so South Melbourne fans to boo him loudly.

Then with Willem Lejeune under the posts for Hellas, the game was balanced with neither team creating the big scoring chance. The same scenario continued until the first fifteen minutes of the second half, from then on Greece began to gain meters on the pitch and almost scored its own goal in the 60th minute when a defender of the visiting team, in his attempt to clear the ball, sent it inside the crossbar with the ball hitting the horizontal goal line and the referee very correctly signalling for play to continue.

The “Golden” goal of South Melbourne was achieved in the 74th minute with a close shot by Nahuel Bonada.

From then on, the Greek team worked hard to preserve the 1-0, but also created important opportunities for a second goal which did not come.

South Melbourne is now alone at the top of the NPL standings with nine points and without conceding a goal in three matches.