South Melbourne established a firm hold on the VPL’s second spot after a come-from-behind 1-3 victory over the Richmond Eagles at Kevin Bartlett Reserve on Friday night.

South began strongly, with Joseph Youssef missing a glorious chance early on to open the scoring.

A cross from Fernando De Moraes was not cleared by the Eagles defence and the ball fell to Youssef, who skied his volleyed attempt with only goalkeeper Peter Zois to beat.

It was the Eagles that went ahead after being awarded a penalty for a foul by South centre-back Steve O’Dor.

From the resultant spot-kick, Tom Milardovic sent Tommi Tomich the wrong way and put the home side 1-0 up.

Despite having gone a goal down, South resumed their usual attacking formation with Youssef teaming up with his fellow midfielder Sebastian Petrovic to carve out the equalising goal for the away side.

Youssef managed to find himself space down the left side, with his cut-back ball falling to Petrovic.

The hard-working midfielder managed to lob Zois and in the process score his second goal for the season.

Shane Nunes has been the biggest improver for South this season and it was the centre-back that put the Blues ahead before halftime.

A free kick taken by Vaughan Coveny was floated into the penalty area, where Nunes snuck in unmarked and hit a perfect left-foot volley past Zois and into the bottom corner.

The goal was Nunes’ second for the season and one that gave South a lead.

The second half continued in the as the first, with South creating chances to finish the match off. Richmond had Zois to thank several times for making some excellent saves, including one from a Fernando free kick and one from a Rama Tavsancioglu power shot.

Coveny was guilty of not finishing a ball that was squared back to him by substitute Sam Torrens from the left and Fernando wasted a glorious chance by hitting a shot wide of the near post, with Zois beaten.

With the match into injury time, a ball played into the area by Richmond was not cleared by South.

The ball fell to Erhan Karahan, whose header towards goal was destined for the top corner before Tomich pulled off an outstanding save to keep his side ahead.

South made sure of the three points in the 94th minute, when a pass from Petrovic found Fernando who finally beat Zois to score, despite the Richmond custodian getting his hand on the ball.

The goal was Fernando’s sixth for the season and 34th in his South career, making him the ninth highest goal scorer in the club’s history.

South Melbourne FC now has a two point lead in second place.