It emerged a 3-1 victor over Tasman United at Sunnyvale Park yesterday, playing 64 minutes with 10 men.
Southern led 1-0 when Markus Fjorfort received his second yellow card in the 26th minute.
A mistimed challenge in difficult conditions came just a minute after he had been put in the referee’s book for backchat.
Coach Paul O’Reilly said it was "unfortunate", although the side planned for those situations.
It resulted in Southern switching to a 4-4-1 formation, but it continued to attack.
It had cause to be upset when Garbhan Coughlan — who had already scored the opener — was pulled down in the box.
Cries for a penalty were ignored and minutes later Tasman’s Kiernan Hughes-Mason equalised.
That could have been a killer blow, but Southern refocused.It kept attacking and eventually scored again on halftime.
A set piece resulted in Tony Whitehead finding Stephen Last for a header in the box.
That was saved, but a misdemeanour from the defence during the play caused a penalty.
Coughlan stepped up and made it 2-1 — his fifth goal against Tasman in two games.
Southern came out stronger after the break and immediately threatened the goal.
Coughlan, Abdulla Al-Kalisy and Ben Deeley were constant threats, while the Southern defence also held solid.
Goalkeeper Liam Little was outstanding at the back, pulling off a handful of superb saves.
That set the platform and in the 57th minute Stephen Last gave Southern breathing room.
A Danny Ledwith corner fell to Deeley, whose shot was deflected by Tasman keeper Keegan Smith.
The rebound fell to Coughlan, who showed good skill to flick it through to Last to score.
Tasman began to work its way back into the game and launched a barrage in the final minutes.
But Southern held firm.Captain Conor O’Keeffe was "absolutely delighted" with the win.
He said the side responded well to being reduced to 10 men.
"You’ve just got to refocus and get five to 10 minutes back in control of the game again," he said.
"If you let the game get away from you the opposition get chances to score.
"We just had to get control of the game, get our shape back and keep the ball for spells.
"I think we’re really good as a team at being defensively hard to beat and hard to break down — that’s what we’re based on.
"So I think we got ourselves back to that position, made good decisions all across the park, [and] didn’t [make] any silly mistakes."
National premiership
The scores
Southern United 3
Garbhan Coughlan 10’, 45’, Stephen Last 57’
Tasman United 1
Kiernan Hughes-Mason 37’
Halftime: 2-1
