The side drew 2-2 in its national football league match against Tasman United yesterday, a match it could have won.
Tasman’s goalkeeper Cory Wilson was sent off for handling the ball outside the box in the 74th minute.
Having already used its three substitutions, Tasman was forced to put defender Daniel Allan in goal, with the score at 2-1 in favour of the home team.
Andrew Ridden equalised for Southern from the ensuing free kick, but it was all Southern could manage. Allan and the Tasman defence held on, as Southern could not find a way through late in the game.
Despite that, it was a result that pleased coach Paul O’Reilly. He said it was "certainly a point gained, rather than two points lost".
He felt the team did well as it played without key defenders Stephen Last and Roland Bala, as well as attacker Garbhan Coughlan and midfielder Hamish Cotter.
"I’m really happy with the effort, the work rate. We’ve got areas to improve on; we’ll keep working at that," he said.
"But in terms of effort, work rate, attitude, commitment, all really good. We caused a threat, we were decent defensively again, so really happy with the performance."
Southern had the better of the first half hour and took the lead 10 minutes in.
Omar Guardiola was taken down in the box and Danny Furlong stepped up to convert the penalty.
Allan hit back for Tasman in the 39th minute, after a contentious decision to award a corner which O’Reilly said he was "disappointed" with.
However, he acknowledged Southern did not do a good enough job of defending it and went to halftime at 1-1.
Tasman came out the stronger early in the second half, although its goal to new cap Kieran Smith came against the run of play.
That enabled it to take the lead, but Ridden was able to level things again after Wilson’s red card.
It was unable to escape without adding to the injury list either.
Impressive youngster Ben Wade left the field in the second half with an arm injury.
O’Reilly was hoping it was not broken, although the side would not know the diagnosis until later in the week.
"We’ve just had a bit of bad luck with the injuries.
"They haven’t necessarily been muscular injuries, they’re more contact with a broken arm and a concussion.
"That’s been a bit of a challenge at the moment, but that’s why we have a big squad.’’
• Southern United Futsal had a disappointing weekend in Christchurch with three losses and a win. It beat Manawatu 9-2 but lost the return match 5-4 and went down 3-2 and 7-2 to Capital.
Southern v Tasman
The scores
Tasman Utd 2
Daniel Allan, Kieran Smith
Southern Utd 2
Andrew Ridden, Danny Furlong
Halftime: 1-1
