PREVIEW: South Island United vs South Melbourne

South Island United is expecting a hostile home-crowd reception when they line-up against South Melbourne in the OFC Pro League on Friday.

The Hellas boys will not be able to play on their Lakeside Stadium due to the upcoming Formula 1, but can still expect plenty of their fans to make the 25km cross-town trip to the Home of the Matildas facility in the northern suburbs.

Both teams will be well rested after their matches were washed out on Tuesday by a freak storm, and the fans will be looking forward to another attacking encounter like the 3-3 draw between the clubs in Port Moresby earlier this month.

“That was one of the best games we played so far and our guys were gutted not to get three points,” says South Island United coach Rob Sherman.

“We got a lot of confidence from that match, as South Melbourne is one of the better teams in the competition. I felt we could have got the three points, if some key moments had gone our way,” says Sherman, referring to a heavily disputed penalty for South Melbourne and a ruled out goal that would have put South Island United 4-2 up.

“But that’s all part of football and the great thing about this competition is that we now have another opportunity to compete with South Melbourne.”

Sherman thinks the Oceania Club of the Century will be a much tougher proposition in front of their home fans than the sweltering heat of Papua New Guinea.

“You could see against Auckland FC on Saturday how passionate their fans are and how much energy they give their team,” says Sherman, referring to the dramatic injury time scenes when a late header earned South Melbourne a 1-1 draw against the league leaders.

Sherman says the rained off match against Auckland FC on Tuesday was annoying, but has given his team a few more days to prepare for the South Melbourne clash.

“We were ready and keen to take on Auckland, so sitting around waiting for the rain to stop and then getting on the bus again is hugely frustrating for footballers, and now OFC will have to find another slot to play this match.”

South Island United officials have been in discussions with OFC and officials in Christchurch to investigate the option to bring the fixture to Christchurch, but any suitable venues are heavily booked over the potential playing dates.

“Obviously we want to bring that match to Christchurch and Auckland FC seemed to be open to the idea as well, but I understand we may struggle to find a stadium on the dates they are looking at,” says Sherman.

South Island United will stay in Melbourne for a few more days to play the catch-up match against Bula FC on Tuesday, which was rained off in Auckland in January.

The travelling southern band will fly to Christchurch the next day for a short rest, before packing up again and boarding a plane to the Solomon Islands on March 11 for the fourth round of the OFC Pro League.

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