By Andrew Bishara (@_andrewbishara)

The points were shared as Northcote City and Pascoe Vale played out a tough 1-1 draw at John Cain Memorial Park on Sunday.

A fiery opening 15 minutes saw Wade Dekker give Northcote the lead, before Luca Santilli equalised for the visitors in a game that created very few clear-cut chances.

The game was only five minutes old when Pascoe Vale ‘keeper Stefaan Sardelic rose highest to catch a looped cross into the box, but collided with his fellow defender and dropped the ball.

It bounced right to Dekker, who slid in and rolled the ball into the net.

Paco immediately lifted its tempo with Tomislav Milardovic getting on the end of a clearance out from a corner, but his shot was skied.

Then, some swift passing between the visitors saw the ball come out to Matthew Lazarides who stuck a lovely shot, only to see it unluckily smash off the crossbar.

Pascoe Vale finally drew level when during a wild goalmouth scramble, Luca Santilli pounced on a loose ball to bang it into the net.

The visitors continued to pile on the pressure with Lazarides tackling the ball off City defender Greg Lombardo, but ‘keeper Chris Theodoridis saved his bending swirling shot.

Theodoridis was at it again minutes later when he denied a Jonathan Voulgaris strike, after the midfielder produced some nice one-touch football with Carl Recchia.

The first half then petered out as the game got bogged down in midfield, with both teams struggling to add to the scoreboard.

Four minutes into the second half, Sardelic’s late diving hands brought down Liam Wooding in the box, leaving the referee with no option but to award Northcote the penalty.

Sardelic made amends for his error however, by producing a stunning double save to deny Wooding’s initial shot and then his rebound, after the ball bounced back to the midfielder.

Northcote continued to push forward with Jonanthan Munoz’s powerful free kick being saved by Sardelic.

The visitors though had the best of the chances with Voulgaris seeing his chipped shot from inside the box saved by Theodoridis, before Joseph Youssef saw his low drive whizz past the post.

Northcote coach Goran Lozanovski was pleased after his team reached the goals it set itself at the start of the month.

“We set ourselves a goal a month ago to get ourselves out of the relegation battle with eight points, and we’ve done that,” Lozanovski said.

“We knew our home games are always a battle, and the game could have gone either way. I think we’re quite happy with our last month.

“[But] there’s still nine games to go and our next month is important.”

Pascoe Vale assistant coach Dan Tribuzio was very happy with his team’s commitment.

“Solid performance today,” Tribuzio said.

“We fought hard. We had a defensive error, but we got back on level (terms) pretty quickly.

“I was really proud with the response from the boys. (They) didn’t let their heads drop and just got on with the job.”

MATCH DETAILS

Round 17, 2014: Northcote City 1 (Wade Dekker 5’) drew Pascoe Vale 1 (Luca Santilli 13’) at John Cain Memorial Reserve [HT: 1-1]

Northcote City: 22. Chris Theodoridis (GK), 2. Adrian Chiappetta, 5. Philip Petreski, 7. Jonathan Munoz, 4. Kristian Konstantinidis, 16. Greg Lombardo, 10. Marino Gasparis (6. Aaron Ward 46’), 11. Liam Wooding (23. Jonathan Bounas 70’), 15. Wade Dekker, 8. James Kalifatidis, 14. Michael Catalano (9. Trent Rixon 62’)

Unused subs: 1. Luke Gavalas, 18. Gregorios Pitsokos

Yellow cards: Munoz 55’, Petreski 61’

Red cards: Nil.

Pascoe Vale: 1. Stefaan Sardelic (GK) 2. Adrian Talarico, 3. Nathan Megic, 4. Tomislav Milardovic, 7. Luca Santilli, 8. Joseph Youssef, 11. Jonathan Voulgaris (11. Marco Santilli 80’), 13. Matthew Lazarides (9. Jake Nakic 62’), 14. Alvaro Carrillo, 22. Carl Recchia, 19. Lindsay Henderson (21. Michael Ferrante 69’)

Unused subs: 23. Melvin Beckett, 25. Yaren Sozer

Yellow cards: Talarico 66’, Youssef 69’, M. Santilli 87’

Red cards: Nil.