Bentleigh Greens fans show their support. Credit:Getty Images A hardy crowd of faithful fans of both teams headed towards the canteen for the traditional post-match sustenance – warming tea, coffee or a souvlaki (these are, after all, both teams founded by and supported mainly by Melbourne's Greek community). Although honours were even neither set of supporters could feel satisfied. The draw keeps Bentleigh in second place and the Bergers in third, but both lost the chance to get closer to league leaders South Melbourne, who stretched their advantage to five points after their resounding 5-2 win over Melbourne Knights on Friday night in one of the opening games of round 11. South now have 28 points, Bentleigh 23 and Heidelberg 20, although there is a long way to go in the season and plenty of distractions yet to come. The chief of those is the FFA Cup, a national tournament which gives a handful of NPL sides a chance to make a splash on a wider canvas and gives one in particular, which is guaranteed a last four berth, the opportunity to garner publicity and revenue that it can only dream about.

Both Bentleigh Greens and Hume City have been able to put themselves under the national spotlight in the past two seasons by getting to the semi-final and those two clubs, plus South and several of their other NPL rivals, would love the opportunity to do the same this season. The Cup has been a resounding success in its first two seasons when it was won initially by Adelaide (who beat Perth Glory in the first final) then Melbourne Victory, who also saw off the West Australians. Not for nothing did one Victorian NPL club official mutter as he surveyed the crowd at the Heidelberg v Bentleigh game: "give me a decent run in the FFA Cup, at least to the quarter-finals with a game against an A-League team and you can keep the whole of this NPL season. You make far more money out of a good Cup run than you do anything else." It's not the view shared by every club – the likes of South Melbourne, who retain a long held ambition to be in the A-League and know that continued success in the NPL is their best form of advocacy – would not necessarily agree. Still, they also know that making their case on the national stage that the Cup affords would only strengthen their argument.

There is no doubt that the Cup, in which the A-League sides get involved in the latter rounds from the middle of winter onwards, can be a great money spinner. Heidelberg reached the quarter-finals last year and although they were routed 5-0 by Melbourne City it is estimated they reaped a six-figure windfall from a match that attracted more than 11,000 people to their Olympic Village ground. Such sums go a long way towards balancing the books in a semi-professional competition like the NPL. It was a similar story the year before when Bentleigh lost at the semi-final stage to Glory and in 2016 Hume were able to reap some reward from making the last four only to go down to Victory at a AAMI Park. Both clubs netted significant revenues from their Cup adventure while it also gave their players a real taste of big time action. One of Hume's youngsters, Jai Ingham, impressed so much he was eventually signed by Victory on an A-League contract.

The big boys don't enter for a few months yet, so with the A-League having the world's longest off season the NPL represents the best place for a soccer fan to get his or her football fix during the winter. And certainly the entertainment value can't really be faulted if it's goals that supporters want. The first five games of round 11 (the last, between Bulleen and Avondale was scheduled for Monday night) produced 30 goals, an average of six a game. Eye catchers were everywhere. Port Melbourne slammed seven without reply past Richmond, South put five past the Knights as did Hume (5-0 winners over Northcote) and Green Gully, 5-0 winners over Oakleigh. Melbourne Victory's youth team's 3-1 success over Pascoe Vale looks relatively low scoring in this context, as does the 1-1 Heidelberg v Bentleigh clash.

While South are going well at the top, Northcote is propping up the ladder having won only once this season and conceded 30 times in its 11 games. It has five points, one less than Richmond, who have conceded a whipping 39 goals in their 11 matches, an average of 3.5 a game. It seems that Tigers fans tempted to banish their AFL woes with a trip to their local NPL team can't expect any joy there, either.