ByDanny Caro, Danny Caro
South Manchester slumped to third from bottom as Miam Miam extended their unbeaten run with victory with a 3-1 win in a bizarre contest.
Playing their first match in seven weeks against opponents that had lost three times in three seasons, South knew that they would have to bring their A-game to the table.
Miam Miam started with nine players and this seemed to unnerve South who were lucky not to go behind on 15 minutes but a fine save from Jody Marks kept the scores level.
The opposition reverted to 11 men soon after and South played the better football without really threatening. Marc Yaffe had the best chance but fired his header straight at the opposition keeper.
Having not taken advantage of their superiority, a series of defensive slips lead to Miam Miam scoring from a corner on the stroke of half time.
South came out strongly in the second half but suffered an injury to forward Sam Cantor. However within two minutes of his arrival substitute Leon Huller had an immediate impact latching onto a Mark Addis pass to level the scores.
Soon after South suffered two further injuries when Marc Yaffe limped off and keeper Marks suffered a rib injury although he bravely soldiered on.
These injuries unsettled South but there was nothing they could do when a badly sliced shot wrong footed the defence and ended up in the bottom corner.
Pressing for an equaliser, South conceded a third on the break but by this point keeper Marks could not dive through injury.
This defeat leaves South in the bottom three but with three games in hand on those around, manager Darryl Lee is confident that they can “get out of trouble”. Lee said: “We will need to find their shooting boots as midfield dominance is not being converted into goals.
South’s next challenge comes this Sunday against The Village in the quarter-finals of the Handicup.