Southern United have conceded 22 goals all season. Eltham Redbacks have scored 68. Saturday afternoon at The Web is where those two facts finally meet.
This is first against second with four rounds left, and it is the biggest home game of the Redbacks women’s season. Eltham lead the VPL Women on 40 points from 18 matches. Southern United sit second on 36. Win this and the gap becomes seven with three to play, which is close to decisive. Lose it and the top of the table compresses into something far less comfortable.
The numbers behind it are worth sitting with. 68 goals is not just the most in the division, it is 22 more than the next best. No side in this competition has been anywhere near as productive going forward. Southern United have gone the other way and built their season on keeping people out, conceding 22 in eighteen and sharing the meanest defensive record in the league. Best attack against best defence is a lazy phrase most weeks. This week the table actually supports it.
Eltham will also remember the reverse fixture. They went to Inez Hunter Recreation Reserve in early May and won 4-1, which is the only time this season Southern United have conceded four.
There is a caveat, and it would be dishonest to skip it. The Redbacks lost their most recent match, 4-2 away at Brunswick Juventus, their first defeat since April. Brunswick sit fourth on 34 points with a game in hand, so that result did not just cost three points, it kept a fourth club in the conversation. Bundoora United are also on 34. Four teams can still finish top of this league.
Home is where Eltham have made their case all year. Nine matches at Eltham North Reserve have brought seven wins, 34 goals scored and a habit of scoring in bunches: five against Banyule, five against Manningham, four against Geelong, four against Bundoora. The synthetic surface rewards the way this team wants to play, and visiting sides have generally found the tempo hard to live with for 90 minutes.
Southern United will not be one of those sides. They have lost four all season and they defend better than anyone Eltham have faced at home. If the Redbacks are going to break them down, it is likely to take patience rather than the fast start that has undone lesser opponents here.
Four rounds to go, four points in hand and the closest challenger coming to The Web. Get down to Eltham North on Saturday, this one is worth being at.
Up the ‘Backs.