“That just shows they don’t drop their heads. They had a task to do and they stuck to it and backed each other up well, despite the cards we still managed to communicate well and shut the opposition down - it was a real gutsy effort.”

Moss and fellow Souths defender Chris Pearson made some important challenges early on in the game as Bloomfield pushed for the early advantage, but it was the home side who were the first to find the mark.

Adam Morton held up the ball then sent a perfect square pass to Jono Cole who drew out Bloomfield goalkeeper Daryl Kennewell and managed to find the mark despite not having much power behind his strike.

The chances continued to come down both ends of the field, Pearson making a good diving tackle to halt Keiran Gentles while Kennewell managed to get his stick on the ball when he looked beaten by Nathan Morgan.

With nine minutes of the half remaining Baillie doubled Souths lead as he tucked in his shot from the right of goal, but Bloomfield put themselves back into the contest shortly after.

Captain-coach Matt Lyons delayed his shot from the top of the circle off a penalty corner which saw him able to put the ball over the top of Souths custodian Scott Gosper who was lying on the ground.

Bloomfield started the second half the stronger of the two sides, Gentles just missing from a one-on-one situation with Gosper after nice lead-up work from Mitch Kennewell and Nick Sharp put him in behind the defence.

Moss and Marjoram were sent off with 24 minutes remaining and when Morton, who had chased back in defence, was yellow carded for a bad stick check, Souths had to spend the final four minutes defending a man short.

They held on under pressure, the defending premiers now just two wins away from a second title.

Bloomfield will host St Pat’s this week as they try to keep their grand final hopes alive.

SOUTHS 2 (Jono Cole, Jono Baillie) defeated BLOOMFIELD 1 (Matt Lyons).