Green Gully went into the game unbeaten at home and on the back of five consecutive wins, the last three of them being at Green Gully Reserve. In contrast, the visitors, Western Suburbs, were yet to pick up three points away from Ralph Reserve.

The game started in an uninspiring fashion, with Green Gully hardly looking like the team that had scored seven goals in its last two games. Western Suburbs, for their part were dominating possession but were failing to get the ball into a dangerous position to threaten the goals of Steven Tilovski.

After twenty-five minutes, it was the visitors who took the lead as Vas Kalogeracos looped a header over Tilovski and into the back of the net after the Green Gully defence had failed to clear a Western Suburbs free kick.

The goal seemed to inspire the visitors as they gained confidence as they looked to increase their advantage. Captain, Terry Antoniadis was leading the way for Suburbs, as he dominated the midfield and was winning countless aerial contests. For their part, the home side's midfield lacked a creative spark and weren't allowed any room to move from a hustling Suburbs' midfield.

After the half time break both teams came out inspired with Western Suburbs looking to increase their lead and the home side looking to get on the scoresheet. The half was barely a minute old when Kris Ivesic found an unmarked Koce Delev in the area. Fortunately for the visitors, the Green Gully striker was unable to hit the mark as his header sailed well over.

For Suburbs, Dimitri Hatsimouratis was playing inspired football and was causing headaches for the Green Gully defence. He almost double the visitors lead early on in the second half when his fierce was deflected onto the post by Tilovski, who was thankful that Steve Burton was there to block the follow up shot from goal scorer, Kalogeracos.

Both coaches were also now swinging the changes with Campbell Banks and John Adam coming on for Ryan Ollerton and Kris Ivesic for the home side and a tiring Johnny Cvetanovski making way for Nikolai Raoma.

Green Gully thought they had equalised midway through the second half after build up play had included an exciting run by Andy Vargas into the area. Thankfully for the visitors, the linesman had raised his flag for offside, much to the dismay of the home support.

Again Hatsimouratis was causing problems for the Green Gully defence, but the failed to make the most of his opportunities and hit the back of the net. The young striker, who has just turned 18, earned praise from his coach for his efforts.

Late on in the match, Green Gully had the Suburbs team pinned in the half under constant pressure but were lacking that final ball to really hurt the visitors. Just when it looked like the visitors would hold on for a memorable victory, a scramble on the edge of the penalty area saw Terry Antoniadis bring down Jeff Fleming.

Andy Vargas stepped up and promptly curled the ball around the six man wall and into the top right hand corner sending the home fans into raptures. As the goal celebrations were in progress the referee blew the whistle for full time.

After the game, a surprisingly upbeat Suburbs coach, Ken Murphy thought that overall a draw was probably a fair result based on game play but rued the fact that for the second time in three matches his team had conceded a goal late in stoppage time.

Next week, the Suburbs will look to pick up three points at Heidelberg whilst the Cavaliers travel to Knights Stadium for a top of the table clash with the Melbourne Knights.

By Neil Zimmerman