Goran Lozanovski turned from villain to hero in the blink of an eye when he scored the opening goal of the game for South Melbourne against Newcastle Breakers midway through the second half at the time when most in the crowd were baying for his substitution after a dismal first half.
Lozanovski, on song, has a bag-full of tricks to bewilder his hapless marker, but until his goal, nothing was working for him. At one point, with the ball at his feet, he and team-mate Steve Panopoulos collided with no Breakers player within tackling range.
But supporters' memories are notoriously short, and when Lozanovski hammered home his grass-cutting shot from the edge of the penalty area after Andy Vlahos sent in a sweet cross for Michael Curcija to lay-off in his direction, he was instantly re-adopted by the home support.
Indeed, but for the finger-tips of veteran Breakers' goalkeeper Bob Catlin, the trio would have had an action replay just eleven minutes later. Vlahos sent in a deep diagonal cross to Curcija who again laid-off for the fast-arriving Lozanovski whose cracking shot from fully 30 metres was headed for the top corner but for Catlin's spectacular save.
Thankfully, South Melbourne coach Ange Postecoglou had never considered substituting Lozanovski, "Goran struggled, especially in the first half, but he's a quality player. You leave him on because with one moment of magic he can open a game. He's not the type of player I think about pulling off."
Lee Sterry, coach of the Breakers, was disappointed that despite having Lozanovski shackled for most of the match, a moment's inattention following a triple substitution, left Lozanovski with room to spare. "I think we were in the match for a long (while)," he said. "I thought we handled the situation quite well. There were three subs made and from a throw in, it gets switched across to Lozanovski it just can't happen. People were asleep."
Until then the game seemed to be heading towards stalemate, with neither side able to put together moves of any fluency. Newcastle played on the break with most of the hard-running being made by John Buonavoglia who, although often getting into threatening positions, usually found his support trailing, and facing too many of South's huge defenders. The experienced Andy Harper was also able to gain good ground and hold the ball up, but South's defence was scarcely troubled. Chris Jones was only infrequently called into action.
Perversely, Breakers' best moments came in the final ten minutes when the equaliser would not have surprised, but in the end conceded a second goal, deep into added time, to leave Bob Jane Stadium with a scoreline that indicated a more comprehensive win for South than was actually the case.
Kiwi Vaughan Coveny, coming on as one of the triple substitution as a direct swap for John Anastasiadis, had a shot from distance three minutes from the end of regulation time which beat Catlin, but cannoned off the post.
That was about the only South attacking move in a sustained period of Breakers' pressure in which the best move came when Andy Harper, after a pin-point cross from Glenn Sprod, headed just over from eight metres when a goal seemed more likely. Just a few minutes earlier, Harper elected to cut a ball back rather than turn and shoot which would have been Sterry's preference.
Showing ambition, Sterry had brought on Chris Tancheski for Brad Wieczorek with twelve minutes to go, pushing Tancheski into a more attacking position, enlivening Breakers' forward line.
"I was disappointed with our last ten minutes we almost allowed Newcastle back into it when we should have worried about the three points," said Postecoglou. "The game should have been over at one-nil. We did some silly things in the last ten minutes. We're not sitting on top of the ladder, trying to put on a show for people we've got to be about winning points," said Postecoglou.
As if to ensure the ball was played as far away from his goal as possible, and make it harder for Breakers' strong finish to earn the equaliser, Jones let fly a bombing clearance. Both Breakers' tall central defenders, Todd McManus and Glenn Moore, converged, spoiling each other and leaving Curcija with a free header to loop over the by now stranded Catlin, to sew up the game.
It was a moment neither McManus nor Moore nor deserved as they had been resolute at the back for the Breakers, and for the majority of the match had the better of South's attack. Sterry praised the pair, despite that unfortunate incident, "Up until that moment, I thought they handled South's quality strikers well."
Indeed, the game was mostly a midfield battle for the first-half, neither side able to make a move of penetration, and meaning the defending outfielders kept the ball from reaching their teams’ respective goalkeepers.
What attacks there were mostly arose from breakaways, with Buonavoglia's running setting tests for the South defence, which were generally passed as the diminutive speedster was manoevred into unproductive parts of the pitch.
Both teams seemed keener to avoid defeat than risk the win during the first half, but with the substitutions midway through the second came the spark that ignited both sides' ambitions.
"We've got (South) four times (this) year and we strike them when they're back (from Brazil) and they've got their minds on the job. I wish I drew them before they went to Rio, but these things happen," said a rueful Sterry.