Summary: Kingston City FC have secured their third victory of the season by defeating South Melbourne FC 2-0 at Lakeside. An abundance of South errors gave City plenty of opportunities to capitalise, and their attacking presence within the game was rewarded.
In any football game, in any football league, every team would hope to beat the team on the bottom of the ladder. Even with the NPL table congested the way it is in the middle, Kingston had only won 2/17 games (albeit, one against us). You can never be 100% confident with South, but a 1-0 victory didn’t seem completely unreasonable. To be, for the most part, outplayed by Kingston in the way we were was such a disparaging sight, and one that has implications about the future of our squad. Not just in a points sense, because we still have a buffer from our run of form mid-season, but in the overall quality -which encompasses consistency- of our performances.
Aside from pushing into our attacking half in the first minute, our first half was an uneventful-to-disappointing affair. If South don’t look dominant within the first 10 minutes in terms of goal scoring, our chances of finding an opportunity decrease significantly. 20 minutes in, and our midfield plays felt lethargic and were shut down well before the goal square. Kingston, despite holding the ball for a fraction of the time, created the best chance in the 26th minute, when a ball played into the 6 yard box was taken wide by Caniglia. This chance, along with a significant portion of Kingston’s plays, were the result of counterattacks easily won in the South Midfield. The amount of errors made in the centre of the park was very disheartening, and it seemed like our ineptitude was a key part of Kingston’s strategy. Our wings were either under-utilised or completely chopped off, and our central plays were, as mentioned, subject to weak turnovers.
Around the 40 minute mark we had a few notable shots by Sylaidos and Schroen, but only notable insofar as South having shot, and those shots being somewhat on target. As is custom with a South squad that haven’t scored within the first 30 minutes, we slowly inched towards goals, which was met with an opposite, but far more effective force. In the last minute of injury time, another South play is turned over, and a through ball isn’t properly cleared by Kristian Konstantinidis. Kingston retain the ball, and have time to set up a switch to Caniglia. He cuts into the box, and his shot, which takes a deflection from Aulton’s foot, lobs over Dorron and into the net. Our inability to play to the half has been well documented over the last few weeks, as well as the significance of our defensive blunders. All we could hope for was some semblance of composure, and a resilient attacking side in the second half.
Unfortunately, we got the opposite. Our forward line was nonexistent in the first half, and our midfield began to fade with it in the last 45. As opposed to having a surplus of shots in our last match with Kingston, this time round we were struggling to do anything with it. The only time we held significant possession of the ball was through back-passing in defence, which isn’t the ideal strategy when you’re losing. The only thing that occurred in-between Kingston’s first and second goal was more mistakes and an increased amount of slipping over. Anthony Theo is given a through ball into the box, and he is able to get away from Aulton and set up a shot on his right foot, which is blasted past Dorron. And while there was almost 20 minutes left of game-time at that point, most spectators knew it was over.
As I watched Keenan Gibson fall over, pop out his shoulder, and have the medical team pop it back in, I couldn’t help but wonder how, of Kingston’s 3 wins this season, 2 of them were against us. At what point do we distinguish teams that we aren’t good enough to beat, or that our team just isn’t good. Not necessarily in quality sense, because I do think we have talented players. But for whatever reason, whether it’s their form, positioning or link ups, we can’t just make it work in a significant portion of matches. Consistency, one of the most important elements of a squad, still isn’t something we’ve found, in spite of a good set of results mid-season. The buffer we have prevents me from panicking just yet, but if we continue to hand relegation battlers three points, it’ll be a very nervy 2 months.
South Melbourne FC: 0
Kingston City FC: 2
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