By Sean Ellicott (@SeanEllicott)

Oakleigh Cannons have ended South Melbourne's 100 per cent winning record, comprehensively defeating the league leader 3-0 at Jack Edwards Reserve on Friday night.

In a convincing performance, three second-half goals from Evan Christodoulou, Nathaniel Foster and Goran Zoric saw the hosts crawl back South's lead at the top of the table to six points in front of a bustling crowd.

In a game of two halves, the first failed to replicate the hype and anticipation that the contest had promised, albeit both sides coming close to breaking the deadlock on a few occasions.

Just on the half-hour mark, Oakleigh custodian John Honos was forced into an exceptional double save.

Diving low to his right to foil a thunderous Tyson Holmes strike, Honos was immediately on call to prevent Milos Lujic's tame follow-up from entering the back of the net, despite the referees’ assistant ruling the forward to be in an offside position.

As South had looked the better side during the opening stages of the match, an Andreas Govas free kick awoke the Cannons and their fans with the midfielder’s effort clattering against Jason Saldaris's upright.

With the match livening up and both sides pressing forward on the front foot, Lujic and South's travelling support thought he had opened the scoring, only for the assistant referee to adjudicate that Lujic's tap-in was in fact offside.

The second interval however produced a far more entertaining spectacle.

Christodoulou handed his side the ascendancy three minutes after the restart as his deflected long-range strike looped into the top corner past a helpless Saldaris.

With the lead, Oakleigh began to take control of the game, extending its advantage on the hour mark.

Catching South on the break, a bursting run by defender Dominic D'Angelo down the right flank eventually found the feet of Zoric in the centre of the park.

Without rushing his pass, Zoric released Foster through on goal with the striker clinically finishing his effort into the bottom corner.

Another 10 minutes was all Oakleigh had to wait for their next goal when former South Melbourne forward Zoric added the third.

With a sublime touch and dribble through the midfield, Dusan Bosnjak played Zoric through on goal, who completed the scoreline with a quality finish into the bottom corner past Saldaris.
South's frustrations nevertheless became apparent, receiving four yellow cards in the final 10 minutes of the game.

Wearing the captain’s armband in the absence of Michael Eagar, stand-in-skipper Bradley Norton received his marching orders in the dying stages of the game, awarded his second yellow card in the space of 10 minutes to add to South’s woes.

Jubilation was all that Oakleigh coach Miron Bleiberg felt at full time.

"It shows Oakleigh are going forward as a club, especially on the field," Bleiberg said.

"We had a game plan and we knew South Melbourne's strengths and weaknesses and the boys executed it to perfection."

"I think we did a good favour to the rest of the competition because we've proved South Melbourne are beatable and it’s opened up the competition and it'll make it much more enjoyable."

South Melbourne Coach Chris Taylor said the loss would spur his side on.

"It was going to happen at some stage, for the way it happened it was just a bad day at the office really,” Taylor said.

"I think it will shake us up and I think it will probably make us a bit more determined but even at halftime we looked very, very flat in the dressing room.

"It just didn't seem the same sort of spark so maybe we've run our race and we needed the loss to actually let us re-group and focus on what we need to do."

MATCH DETAILS

Oakleigh Cannons 3 (Christodoulou 51', Foster 60', Zoric 70') defeated South Melbourne 0 at Jack Edwards Reserve [HT 0-0].

Oakleigh Cannons: John HONOS, Aron WILFORD, Jordan LOWDON, Dominic D'ANGELO, Evan CHRISTODOULOU, Andreas GOVAS (Ariel RITZ 58'), Goran ZORIC, Dusan BOSNJAK, Nathaniel FOSTER (Dean PIEMONTE 72'), Bonel OBRADOVIC (George KROMMIDAS 81'), Thomas LAKIC.

Unused Substitutes: Harry RAWORTH, Veton KORCARI.

Yellow Cards: Govas (48'), Foster (59').

Red Cards: None

South Melbourne: Jason SALDARIS, Tim MALA, Nick EPIFANO (Leigh MINOPOULOS 62'), Mathew THEODORE, Milos LUJIC, Tyson HOLMES (Kobbie BOAHENE 72'), Bradley NORTON, Iqbal JAWADI (Slaven VRANESEVIC 79'), Jamie REED, Andrew MULLETT, James MUSA.

Unused Substitutes: Chris MAYNARD, Dimi TSIARAS.

Yellow Cards: Holmes (27'), Norton (86', 90’+5), Minopoulos (87'), Boahene (90+3').

Red Cards: Norton (90’+5).

Image credit: Peter Psarros