Shepparton South belts bogey team Eaglehawk, Tatura clobbers Colts in BASL action

A Sean Grant double coupled with goals from Joel Aitken and Luke Viney dragged Rob Harmeston’s side back from 1-0 down, leaving South’s leader content with yet another solid three points earned at home.

“I think that confidence was high after last week, although we went into a game against a team that had beaten us twice previously this season,” Harmeston said.

“I was very confident we could get a result at home on a bigger pitch. Eaglehawk away is a different proposition and a tough place to go, especially with 10 men.”

Shades of disarray re-entered the conversation for South early on in the grudge match.

Felix Onea was lost to a head injury, with the defender replaced by Viney a couple minutes in before Eaglehawk stole a lead off the head of Brent Hamblin.

The heavy-set defender flicked one off the post to push his side out to a short-lived advantage.

Aitken would then stifle the noise made by travelling fans lining the east-side hill of McEwen Reserve.

South’s fox in the box ghosted in at the near post and used his in-step to wrap the ball past Eaglehawk goalkeeper Jaydon Abbott to equalise.

The noise on the hill grew quieter still when Sean Grant buried a penalty on the second attempt on 10 minutes later.

His first strike was clean, but after being called back for encroachment, the Scot tucked away his lunch in the right corner past Abbott’s left arm.

And if there were any remaining murmurs after Grant’s strike, the embankment fell silent on 28 minutes following another South goal.

The cause was a crashing Viney header at the back post off Nick Mori’s floated corner delivery, making it 3-1 at the break.

Although, strange scenes swept the dressing room with Harmeston not in attendance.

South’s coach was made to watch from outside the ground due to sickness, meaning a phone call to the bench was never far away.

“It was a little weird, but the message was delivered to the boys before the game in midweek knowing I wasn’t going to be there on Saturday plus Sean and Marlon delivered the message to players on what was required,” he said.

“Honestly I felt a little disconnected not being in the rooms before and at half-time ― but I didn’t need to be in there to hear the song at full time, that I heard from the opposite side of McEwen.”

Grant would score his second after Mori stole the ball high up the pitch, providing a delightful back-heel assist for his teammate who rounded the keeper and passed into an empty net.

It may not have been a 10 out of 10 South performance, but was towards the higher end of the scale in Harmeston’s eyes.

“It was disappointing to concede first, given we had a player off getting treated, or else I don’t think we would have conceded,” he said.

“We played some really good football and controlled large periods of the game, managing the counter-threat of Eaglehawk.

“That’s two really good performances now as we enter the business end of the season.”

At Howley Oval, Tatura gave the competition’s whipping boy Colts a dose of hard reality as it sent 14 past the bottom ranked side.

Skipper Cody Sellwood struck five and Aaron Niglia returned with four, while the Ibises’ other scorers were Fraser Gosstray, Ben Tartaglia, Mason Hamilton and Gerald Corbo (two).

Shepparton United’s scheduled match with Epsom was postponed, with the Blues seemingly a lock for a third place finish this season.

In division one women’s, Tatura couldn’t find a way to stump ladder leader Colts.

The Ibises shipped two goals in a 20-minute period and lost out 2-0, remaining in fourth spot.

A late penalty scored by Jasmine Vukcevic proved only a consolation for Shepparton South as it dropped away 2-1 to Eaglehawk, and Shepparton United had the bye.