There’s no sugar coating what happened last week to Oakleigh Cannons in the NPL. One of the few contenders to really give South Melbourne and run for their money failed to win a simple match and have seriously hampered their title hopes.

We didn’t falter a little bit, we faltered big time; it was a very costly loss – Miron Bleiberg

The Cannons suffered their first home match loss of the season, falling 2-1 at the hands of Hume City.

Cannons coach Miron Bleiberg was brutally honest about his side’s performance, chastising the team for playing at 40 per cent capacity after the match.

“We didn’t falter a little bit, we faltered big time,” he tells Neos Kosmos.

“It was a very costly loss.”

Bleiberg has eight games left to fight for top position, but he knows how tough that will be.

If things go well, Oakleigh can bank on wining their match against South Melbourne in round 25 and hope for two losses from South Melbourne to close the nine point gap between them.

“It’s become tougher by the week,” Bleiberg admits.

“I don’t think Oakleigh is the lesser side, on the contrary, the fact that we’ve scored more goals than them and the fact that we beat them means were are as good if not better.

“One word, it’s consistency. We don’t have the consistency that they have.

“Everyone wants to beat South Melbourne and they resist the pressure. Every week we wait for it to happen that they lose and they don’t.”

He’s banking on a win tomorrow to make the dream more of a reality, but once again the fixture hasn’t been kind.

They are up against Bentleigh Greens, a team that has seen great results in the NPL but haven’t had the best time outside it.

They failed to get anything past Melbourne Victory this week in a preseason friendly after getting the upperhand over Dandenong Thunder.

It’ll be a battle to see if the team is fit enough to take on the Cannons, playing five games in two weeks.

Bleiberg isn’t taking any chances.

“It’s a team that’s been on our heel, they’re third on the ladder and bad results might affect the position of our team and push them to second,” he says.

“After a game against South Melbourne we can’t find tougher competition.”

The match is just one of two Greek sponsored derbies we’ll see this week, with Northcote City and South Melbourne taking each other on.

Northcote is on a great run at the moment, unbeaten in five games, but might struggle to fight with more energy on Saturday with the knowledge they are out of title contention sitting at sixth on the ladder.

At least of the fans, this one will be a bit of a grudge match. NPL top-scorer Milos Lujic and Michael Eagar will be returning to John Cain Memorial Park, and both will be looking to get one over their former club.

Another interesting match will be Heidelberg United’s battle with Hume City. United didn’t have the best luck last week, being held by Port Melbourne
Sharks in a rare 0-0 draw. Heidelberg are the top goalscorers of the league and being dominated by an under-performing Sharks showed there might be issues hampering the former third team.

Hume City will be using the game to properly warm up for their Melbourne Victory match on Tuesday.