Two weeks ago, it battled past Tasman United with 10 men, but it was unable to repeat that yesterday.
It was beaten 1-0 by Canterbury United at Tahuna Park as goalkeeper Liam Little was red carded after 22 minutes.
Canterbury keeper Conor Tracey sent a long ball up the right quickly, having just saved a free kick.
Southern was forced to scramble and, after a Rory Findlay header, Erik Panzer was left to play it back to Little under pressure.
However, the Canterbury attack pounced on it and Little came out to make a save, but was a metre out of his box when he flung an arm up. He saved the goal, but it resulted in his dismissal. Abdulla Al-Kalisy was also subbed, as youngster Stewart Catto emerged to make his debut.
Catto made an outstanding save on a Stephen Hoyle shot minutes later, although he had little chance to deny him in the 37th minute.
Hoyle received the ball 10m out after a centering pass and finished with his left foot to make it 1-0.
From there, Southern’s defence was tough to break down. It made Canterbury work hard for its chances and Catto proved safe when he was required.However, Canterbury continued to play a physical game defensively and Southern had a tough time getting through.
Danny Ledwith went close from long range in the 40th minute and Stephen Last narrowly missed a late header.
The result was disappointing for Southern coach Paul O’Reilly, although he felt the side performed well.
"One or two moments of sloppiness killed us," he said.
"The goal was a bit casual and sloppy and the lead-up to the red card was sloppy.
"But we probably should have been in front before that with some of the chances we had.
"Even after that I thought we still caused a threat and we defended really well — they only broke us down once or twice.
"It’s just frustrating because 11 v 11 we looked like we were well ahead of the match there today.
"It looked like we might come out on top, so extremely frustrated and disappointed."
The red card was Southern’s third in five games, but O’Reilly was not too concerned.
The team would look to tidy it up, but it was not flying into tackles recklessly and he felt it was more a bad spell than an issue.
The refereeing sparked plenty of reaction from both the crowd and the coaches. Both O’Reilly and assistant Terry Boylan were shown yellow cards, but were philosophical afterwards.
O’Reilly said the referees generally did well and ,while some days you felt you got the rub of the green, others you did not, and yesterday was probably the latter.
• In the national youth league, Southern drew its final game 2-2 with Canterbury at Tahuna Park on Saturday. That was enough for it to finish in fourth place on 16 points.
Auckland City took the title, edging Waitakere United on goal difference after both finished on 19 points.
• Canterbury United claimed the national women’s league title, Monique Barker scoring in extra-time to beat Northern 3-2 in Auckland.
Annalie Longo was named league most valuable player.
National football premiership
The scores
Canterbury United 1
Stephen Hoyle 37’
Southern United 0
Halftime: 1-0
