Oakleigh Cannons upset South Melbourne, have eyes on four trophies

Reigning NPL Victoria champions Oakleigh Cannons handed South Melbourne its second loss of the season to remain in the premiership hunt.

Brodie Boyce in action for Oakleigh Cannons. Picture: Hamish Blair

Oakleigh has silverware in its sights after knocking off South Melbourne 2-0 on Sunday.

The Cannons became just the second team this season to claim all three points against Hellas to keep its NPL Victoria premiership hopes alive.

Goals to Oliver Kubilay and Alexander Fiechtner either side of half-time and a third clean sheet in a row ensured a crucial win at Yarraville Glory’s McIvor Reserve.

The result keeps the reigning champions within five points of ladder-leader Avondale while also into the Dockerty Cup semi-finals and the Australia Cup Round of 32.

Coach Chris Taylor said his team was finding its best football at the right time of the season.

Oliver Kubilay in action for Oakleigh Cannons. Picture: Hamish Blair

“It was a big game for us, we knew if they’d won that kind of ruled out top-two for us, whereas now we’re in for a big chance,” he said.

“We set up a little bit different to everyone else, the last five or six games and finals that’s the business end of the season, so we’re starting to get a bit more serious.

“We know we’re capable of it, we beat (South Melbourne) in the grand final last year, and to be honest 2-0 was probably flattering for them, we totally dominated the game.

“We had the opportunity to put them to bed, we didn’t, we could have been three or four up in the first half and we had a couple of very good chances in the second half but all-in-all a clean sheet was good.

“It’s a long season, I think we played 42-43 games last season, especially when you’re semi-professional … we make sure we’re peaking at the right time of the season.”

Oakleigh opened the scoring in the 31st minute as Kubilay thundered in his first goal of the campaign.

South failed to clear a vicious Joe Guest corner and Kubilay was waiting on the edge of the area to smash in the loose ball.

A turnover in midfield then led to the Cannons second as the ball came to Guest on the left wing his squaring ball found Fiechtner for a tap in and his seventh of the season.

Anton Mlinaric in action for Oakleigh. Picture: Hamish Blair

At the other end, goalkeeper Nick Feely made his long-awaited return from injury and kept South Melbourne off the board for just the third time this season.

Feely, the former Celtic youth and Perth Glory custodian, is a welcome mid-season addition for the reigning champion.

“Both our central defenders did very, very well, Boyce and Mlinaric, which gave us a solid base and we had Feely in goal for his first game of the season,” Taylor said.

“He’s been out since August last year, he had one game but wasn’t right, and we’ve gone through another rehab process with him.

“He’s had some quad issues where he’s had a tear and then aggravated it, so it’s been a very long process, but he’s got the experience – he’s played overseas and A-League – so it was good to get him in there, an old head who organises people.”

Oakleigh will face Melbourne Knights in the Dockerty Cup semi-final on Wednesday, July 12, at Knights Stadium.

The Cannons have been drawn to face A-League heavyweights Melbourne City in the Australia Cup Round of 32, with the match date yet to be finalised.

With four trophies up for grabs, Taylor is confident his team has the quality to compete on multiple fronts successfully.

“I’m about winning trophies, the more trophies you win the more successful you are,” Taylor said.

“We won the championship last year, the first time the club’s done it, so we’ve got that monkey off the back and now we want to go out and win as many things as we can.

“It’s similar to what we did last year, the Australia Cup is going to be massive having been drawn against Melbourne City.

“I think it’s a good time for us, they’re only going into pre-season this week and we’ll probably play them at the end of the month, which will be an advantage for us.

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“Next week we’ve got the Dockerty Cup semi-final and then still with everything to play in the league and finals, so there’s four trophies up for grabs.”

Goulburn Valley Suns will host Heidelberg United in the other Dockerty Cup semi-final at Shepparton’s John McEwen Reserve on Tuesday, July 11.

Meanwhile, in the league, Melbourne Knights held Avondale to a 1-1 draw, Bentleigh Greens took a big step towards safety with a 2-0 win at St Albans and Green Gully knocked off North Geelong 3-1 on Friday night.

On Saturday, Port Melbourne edged Heidelberg United 1-0, Hume City survived a scare against Moreland City 3-2 and a Jonas Markovski hat-trick propelled Altona Magic to a strong 3-0 win at Dandenong Thunder.