There is a strange freedom in being bottom of the table, and Green Gully head to Lakeside Stadium on Sunday with nothing to protect and everything to chase.
The Cavaliers go again on the back of the cruellest kind of afternoon, two goals up away to title-chasing Hume City before falling 3-2 to a late winner. The result kept them rooted to the foot of NPL Victoria on four points, still searching for a first win of the season, but the performance was a reminder that the gap between this squad and the results it has been getting is smaller than the ladder suggests. Andy Vargas will want that same first hour, sustained for ninety minutes this time.
South Melbourne offer an opponent every bit as unpredictable as Gully could hope for. The hosts sit sixth on 25 points, but their form reads like a coin toss, two heavy 0-4 home defeats inside a fortnight last month, then a thumping 5-1 win away at Bentleigh Greens in their most recent outing. That is a side capable of brilliance and collapse in equal measure, and a Gully outfit that can take the game to title contenders will fancy catching them on an off day. The reverse fixture went South Melbourne’s way by a single goal back in March, a 1-0 result that could easily have gone either way.
Lakeside is a proper away day and a big stage, exactly the sort of fixture that can spark a season into life. Gully need the points, badly, and there are few better places to finally get over the line than against an opponent who does not always know which version of themselves will turn up.
Cavaliers!
