Shepparton News

South continues to climb ladder

- By Tyler Maher

Shepparton South has climbed into sixth spot on Bendigo Amateur Soccer League’s division one championsh­ip ladder after a massive win at home on Sunday.

‘‘It’s good to be able to finally finish a team off,’’ cocoach Nathan Radevski said.

South slammed eight goals past Golden City at McEwen Reserve to almost completely dominate the encounter, but City remarkably held the lead until the 16th minute after a fifth-minute strike from Zac Gilmour found the back of the net.

‘‘It was really early and I guess it frustrated us,’’ Radevski said.

‘‘It took us 10 minutes to find our feet but after that we were in control, that was probably their only chance for the game.’’

From there it was all the home side, with co-coach Joel Aitken (four goals) and striker Jesse Brun (three) spearheadi­ng the avalanche.

‘‘It’s good for those two confidence-wise going through and scoring goals,’’ Radevski said.

‘‘Especially for Joel, he probably hasn’t gotten as many as he would like so far and that’s something he prides himself on.’’

Substitute Alpha Sherrif completed the 8-1 scoreline in the 82nd minute.

South faces a daunting task against ladder-leader Shepparton United this weekend, but Radevski is confident his charges can give a great account of themselves.

‘‘I think we’ve proven this year that we seem to lift against the top teams,’’ he said.

‘‘Going into this as underdogs this time compared to last year might make us lift that bit more.’’

Meanwhile, Shepparton suffered a heart-breaking defeat in the final minute of its clash with Strathdale.

After trailing for much of the clash a Yonas Niyigalula strike — his fifth goal in as many appearance­s — gave the away side some hope of salvaging a result, but it was not to be as Strathdale found the net once more.

‘‘I’m not overly happy with the way we played in the first half,’’ coach Dillon Shelley said.

‘‘In the second we were able to step it up and I felt like we were in control for most of it, barring the last five minutes.’’

Shepparton is in the midst of an injury crisis, with up to 12 players sidelined and four leaving the field during Sunday’s match alone.

‘‘You expect a few injuries, but when you’ve got a dozen it makes things hard,’’ Shelley said.

The growing medical room will make the task this week against second-placed Eaglehawk on Sunday much harder, with Shelley simply hoping his side can battle through.

‘‘We’ve got a pretty short string squad at the moment,’’ Shelley said.

‘‘We’re just going to try and battle through, but it might be an uphill battle.’’

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