A Marcus Schroen led South Melbourne have re-claimed the NPL Victoria Championship after a years wait, with a 3-2 win over Oakleigh Cannons.
The win also signals South’s first victory under the revised Finals Series format, after suffering a 3-1 defeat to Bentleigh Greens in last year’s inaugural NPL Grand Final.
A strong crowd – the official figure provided was 4,211 attendees – turned out to witness an end-to-end contest, which saw the scoring opened after just 19 minutes with Leigh Minopoulos sliding a tidy finish low past John Honos in front of a home crowd.
Oakleigh managed to fashion an equaliser through Dean Piemonte, who was on hand to tap in from close range after Dusan Bosnjak struck the upright with his initial shot.
South had the better of the chances as the half wore on, with Schroen looking incredibly ominous after striking the woodwork twice in the space of two minutes.
The attacking midfielder struck the crossbar with a dipping free-kick, before nearly icing off a brilliantly flowing South move, but his first time effort on the left boot struck the right upright before drifting safely away for the last action of the half.
As it turned out, Schroen had to wait all of 10 minutes from the resumption of play to eventually find the back of the net, capitalising on some great work down the left wing from Nick Epifano, who placed the ball on his head with an accurate cross.
Moments after the restart, Oakleigh winger Goran Zoric nearly restored parity, but his stinging drive was saved onto the crossbar by an alert Nikola Roganovic.
Zoric created another opportunity for the Cannons soon after, crossing for Piemonte, but Roganovic was able to hold his effort, as he did with another effort from Piemonte from long range.
South then effectively sealed the tie going down the other end to net a third in the 68th minute through Schroen, who latched onto a long-throw for his second of the night.
Full-back Bradley Norton tried his hand with an audacious first time volley that flashed agonisingly wide of the left post, while the Cannons were counting their lucky stars it wasn’t four soon after thanks to some brilliant last-ditch defending from Steve Pantelidis, who was on hand to block consecutive shots from Epifano, then Milos Lujic.
Similarly, there was a double chance at the other end, through Cannons substitute Sean Lovemore, but he was well stopped by Roganovic, then Tim Mala who cleared off the line.
When Adrian Chiappetta was sent off for a second yellow card offence, it appeared there was no salvation for Oakleigh, however a last ditch goal from Bosnjak – who struck with a tidy volley inside the area – gave them one last reprieve.
However South were able to hang on for their second NPL Victoria title in three years, much to the celebration of their adorning home support.