First against second, three rounds from the end of a season, on your own synthetic. There is no hiding place in a fixture like that, and for 45 minutes the Redbacks did not find one.
Southern United arrived at The Web four points back and very much still in this, and they left it seven adrift with their title hopes hanging by a thread. The 2-1 scoreline undersells how uncomfortable the first half was and how completely the second belonged to Eltham.
For half an hour there was almost nothing in it, which was not for want of Redbacks pressure. Eltham had the better of the opening exchanges without ever carving out anything clear cut, Isobel Berks driving at the Southern back line the way she has all season and Natsumi Kanno finding neat angles in midfield. Then, on thirty minutes and entirely against the run of the play, Southern broke down the right, worked a cross into the area that Tiana Orfanidis got a hand to but could not hold, and Daniella Di Petta swept the loose ball into an empty net.
That was harsh on the home side, and it got harsher. There were three Redbacks corners inside a ninety second spell just past the half hour, Alessia Napolitano swinging them all into dangerous areas, and not one of them produced anything. Alexandria Giovino tried to drag the game back with an effort from just outside the box that cleared the crossbar. Half time arrived with Eltham a goal down and, by all accounts, a few things to say to each other about it.
They came out and settled the thing in nine minutes. Paige Foa levelled on sixty-two with a strong finish from inside the box, and it was Berks who won it on seventy-one, curling home the sort of goal that a player earns across 90 minutes rather than one moment. She had been fouled repeatedly all afternoon. She had been denied what looked a clear penalty at 0-0. Minutes after scoring the winner she was brought down again, the appeal was waved away once more, and the accumulation of it eventually forced her off on seventy-five.
There will be a conversation about those decisions. The Redbacks felt they had two strong penalty appeals turned down, one of them right in front of the assistant, and the second was given as a goal kick after the referee consulted his linesman. None of it changed the result, which is the best answer a team can give, but it does not make the afternoon any less frustrating for the player who wore the brunt of it.
What the second half showed was a side that stopped waiting for the game to come good and went and took it. Southern were made to defend for long stretches, there were bodies thrown in front of shots in the Eltham box, and the substitutions did their job without the shape ever loosening. Jonathan Barrientos was clear afterwards that the first half had been dominated too, whatever the scoreboard said, and that the response was a collective one. Everyone played their role, was his summary, and in the second half the Redbacks were “one team and one team only”. From the sideline that is roughly how it looked.
The table now reads considerably better than it did on Saturday morning. Eltham sit top on 43 points, six clear of Bundoora United and Brunswick Juventus, with Southern fourth on 36 and running out of room. Seventy goals scored is the best return in the competition. Thirty-five conceded is the part still worth tidying up, and it has cost points in games like the Bayside draw and the Brunswick defeat.
Three rounds remain: Ringwood City away on Friday, Ballarat City at home, then Clifton Hill away to close it out. Nothing is decided yet, but coming from behind to beat the side directly behind you, at home, with the run-in this short, is about as useful as a Saturday gets.
Up the ‘Backs.