By David Manuca (@davidmanuca)

South Melbourne has been crowned the inaugural NPL Victoria champion, following Melbourne Knights’ 1-0 win over Oakleigh Cannons in the two sides’ catch-up fixture at Knights Stadium on Wednesday night.

The second-placed Cannons needed a draw or win to keep their title hopes alive before their clash with South Melbourne on Sunday, but they were left heartbroken when Stipo Andrijasevic netted a late winner for the Knights.

The Knights’ win was made even more impressive with coach Andrew Marth fielding a youthful and inexperienced team, following the side’s two-day break since winning the Dockerty Cup final on Sunday.

It was obvious from the outset which side needed the three points more, with Oakleigh coming out with a clear attacking intent.

Goran Zoric gave Knights goalkeeper Michael O’Farrell a warning shot after just three minutes with a powerful strike from just outside the box.

Oakleigh continued the pressure but the Knights defence did well to limit the Cannons to tame shots from outside the box.

O’Farrell was forced into a spectacular save in the 36th minute from an Aron Wilford strike, and the resulting corner saw a remarkable penalty area scrap.

Oakleigh hit the post and had a shot cleared off the line and somehow failed to convert on numerous occasions within a matter of seconds as the ball made its way around the box.

Veton Korcari played in Nate Foster one-on-one with O’Farrell right on the stroke of half-time, but the goalkeeper refused to be beaten.

Oakleigh boss Miron Bleiberg took off Korcari and introduced captain Evan Christodoulou at half-time as he chased a breakthrough.

Foster had another one-on-one opportunity with O’Farrell 10 minutes into the second half but after taking it past the goalkeeper, he was unable to find a teammate from a tight angle.

On the hour mark Oakleigh stepped up the pressure and in a matter of four minutes it had four glorious chances to finally break the deadlock.

The first came through Zoric, who made a brilliant run through the Knights’ defence, but he could not find a teammate with his cut-back inside the box.

A minute later it was Zoric again running through the defence, but this time he had his shot blocked by Knights centre-half Milan Batur.

The third chance fell to Christodoulou after he was played in by Dean Piemonte, but he hit his shot over the crossbar.

Christodoulou then had another shot just a few seconds later after Foster found him unmarked in the penalty area, but O’Farrell produced a wonderful save to deny the midfielder.

Marth knew his side had an opportunity to utilise the counter-attack with Oakleigh pressing for a goal, and brought on youngster Luke Jurcic in place of Joey Monek.

In his first involvement in the game, Jurcic produced a wonderful cross for Andrijasevic, but the forward could not connect with a spectacular diving header.

The Knights thought they had scored in the 77th minute when Leo Athanasiou played in a perfect cross for an unmarked Tomislav Uskok, but the big midfielder smashed his header off the crossbar.

The home side was starting to create more chances as Oakleigh pushed more men forward and after Dominic D’Angelo lost possession, Ben Surey was able to play in Andrijasevic, who showed great skill and composure to beat his defender and slide the ball past John Honos in the 80th minute.

Oakleigh coach Miron Bleiberg said his side had blown an opportunity to meet South Melbourne in what could have been a potential title decider on Sunday.

“Not good enough and very disappointing,” Bleiberg said.

“You work hard all season and we wanted to go on Sunday to South Melbourne and play an equal part and now we’re coming as a second-rate team.

“I was as frustrated as possible and if you look at me from close range, I have a few grey hairs from games like these.”

Melbourne Knights captain Ben Surey was pleased to get the win with a depleted squad.  

“It feels good to win a game in that way,” Surey said.

“We were already down to a skeleton team. We were hoping to get a draw really, (to) frustrate them and play a style that suited the personnel we had and try nick it (a goal) on the break, which we did.”

As the NPL Victoria champion, South Melbourne will now compete against South Hobart in the elimination finals of the national NPL 2014 Finals Series, which begin in late September.

MATCH DETAILS

Melbourne Knights 1 (Andrijasevic 80’) defeated Oakleigh Cannons 0 at Knights Stadium

Melbourne Knights: Michael O’FARRELL (GK), 4. Ben SUREY, 5. Milan BATUR, 6. Tomislav USKOK, 7. Daniel VISEVIC, 8. Leo ATHANASIOU (3. Chris ANTONIADIS 90+1), 9. Stipo ANDRIJASEVIC, 12. Michael SIMMS, 14. Tomislav FADJEVIC, 17. Joey MONEK (11. Luke JURCIC 65’), 18. Nik SRBINOVSKI.

Unused substitutes: 1. Dallas COLELOUGH (GK), 10. Michael KATIFORIS, 19. Billy KATHOPOULIS.

Yellow cards: Nil

Red cards: Nil

Oakleigh Cannons: 1. John HONOS (GK), 3. John BLACK, 5. Aron WILFORD, 7. Bonel OBRADOVIC, 10. Veton KORCARI (11. Evan CHRISTODOULOU 46’), 12. Tremayne SADLER, 14. Nathaniel FOSTER, 17. Dean PIEMONTE (20. Rowan McNAMEE 66’), 18. Adam LE CORNU (21. Andreas GOVAS 70’), 19. Goran ZORIC, 23. Dominic D’ANGELO.

Unused substitutes: 2. Thomas LAKIC, 35. Evan KRALOGLOU.

Yellow cards: Nil

Red cards: Nil

Pictured: Melbourne Knights forward Stipo Andrijasevic scores the goal which seals the NPL 2014 Victoria title for South Melbourne (Image credit: Graeme Furlong)