Sydney Olympic has recorded win number 6 of the
season. But we did it much harder than it needed to be, as we squandered numerous
chances to put this game to bed and, in the end, we had to grind out the
result.
We started the match off in ominous form and we could have conceivably been 3-0
up inside the first 10 minutes, with only a couple of good saves from the
goalkeeper and some desperate last ditch defending preventing it from being so.
We were carving them up at will and it only seemed a matter of time before we
would open the scoring, we continued to look dangerous in attack, especially
down both flanks as the first-half progressed. If we weren’t missing chances,
then it was our last pass options that was letting us down, we just didn’t have
that little bit of luck. Eventually we did find the back of the net, only for
that to be ruled out for offside. We huffed and puffed in that first-half,
totally dominating the play but we were not able to get our reward, which was
very frustrating. The only time we looked in any sort of trouble defensively, was
due to our own doing. Losses in concentration saw us sloppily give the ball
away a couple of times which resulted in them breaking away at pace,
fortunately for us their end product was worse than ours. At the half-time
break the score was 0-0 and it had the stench of being one of those days where
the ball would not go in.
Unlike last week where we started the second-half poorly, yesterday we came
back from the break and continued our positive play from the first-half. This
positivity was rewarded 10 minutes into the second-half, as Radovan Pavicevic
headed home from a corner to finally give us a much deserved 1-0 lead. We had
other chances but we would not be as dominant in the final 30 minutes of the
match. The opposition, having been let off the hook throughout the contest
sensed an equaliser and pushed hard in this endeavour. It is what happens when
you fail to put teams to the sword. As a result of them pushing for a goal, it
did open up some space for us to kill the game off. We had a couple of good opportunities,
but we just could not find the second goal. We had a couple of scares
defensively late-on, but we were able to hold on to our lead and claim the
all-important victory.
As a supporter, you cannot be displeased with the season we are currently experiencing.
8 matches, 6 Wins, 1 Draw, 1 Loss. A brilliant start to the season and we have
put ourselves in a good position to challenge on all fronts this season.
With several injuries to the squad, we will be stretched thin over the next few
weeks as the matches will now be coming thick and fast. A couple of
re-enforcements are needed when the window opens in a couple of months.
In the Club Championship, the U18s lost 4-3 and the U20s managed to grab a 2-2
draw.
Our next match is a Round 5 FFA Cup match against Terrigal United this Wednesday
Night, May 2. Taking place on the Central Coast at Pluim Park, Tuggerah St.
Lisarow. Kick-Off is at 7pm.
Our next League match is this Saturday Night, May 5. An always tough away day
to face the Sutherland Sharks. Kick-Off is at 6.30pm at Seymour Shaw Park in
Miranda.
Monday 30 April 2018
Monday 23 April 2018
Sydney Olympic 2-2 R******e
On Sunday, Sydney Olympic threw away a 2-0
half-time lead, succumbing to a disappointing 2-2 draw and in the process, that
result ended our perfect home League record for 2018.
The result should have been put way beyond doubt and we should have been well out of sight at half-time. Unfortunately, a poor second 45 ensured that we shared the spoils. The result also saw us spurn the chance to go outright First in the League.
It looked all very positive early on, as we started the match off very well and took the game to our opponents. We created several good opportunities, only some poor finishing and good goalkeeping kept us scoreless in that first 15 minutes. Alejandro Sanchez and Max Burgess were on-song once again for Sydney Olympic, they have probably been our 2 best players so far this season and were once again, our 2 most dangerous players in the first-half. 20 minutes in, they would combine to break the dead-lock, as some nice work from Sanchez saw the ball fall for Burgess who made no mistake to tap home and give us a 1-0 lead. It was good to see that we did not rest on our laurels, kept up the pressure and continued pushing for more goals. We had a couple of good chances to double our lead before Sanchez eventually did, around 10 minutes before half-time, with a good finish to put us 2-0 up. At the half-time break there was only one team in it and realistically we should have gone to the sheds 4 or 5 nil up. The confidence was there though that we would come out in the second-half and finish the job, so at 2-0 we looked comfortable.
That confidence diminished fairly quickly, as we looked like a different team to start the second-half. We looked sluggish and inside the first 20 minutes of the second-half, the opposition created 4-5 excellent chances and before we knew it our 2-0 lead had evaporated, as we conceded 2 goals in quick succession, we could have even shockingly found ourselves behind. We briefly awoke from our slumber late on in an attempt to re-take the lead, but in reality, it was the opposition who looked the more likely to find a winner. Fortunately, we did not concede again and at the full-time whistle, we had to accept the 2-2 result. It’s not about being an idiot and laying into anyone, but it was a poor second-half all-round, a more Jekyll & Hyde performance you will not see anywhere.
On the injury front, we now know that Hagi Gligor will join Jake de Marigny in missing the rest of the season with long-term injuries and it could be late June/early July before we see Paul Katsetis back. So, our depth will once again be tested, a problem the Club has experienced for the last few seasons. William Angel who we sorely missed yesterday, will be back next match after serving his suspension.
In the Club Championship, the U18s lost 4-0 and the U20s managed to grab a 1-1 draw. Same old, same old here.
For the FFA Cup, we have been drawn away to Terrigal United from the Central Coast in Round 5 of the competition. That match will more than likely take place next mid-week. Details TBC.
Our next match is this Sunday, April 29. We need to get back on the horse against an always difficult and enthusiastic Sydney FC NPL team, it is essential we bounce back straight away with a victory. Kick-Off is at 3pm at Belmore Sports Ground.
The result should have been put way beyond doubt and we should have been well out of sight at half-time. Unfortunately, a poor second 45 ensured that we shared the spoils. The result also saw us spurn the chance to go outright First in the League.
It looked all very positive early on, as we started the match off very well and took the game to our opponents. We created several good opportunities, only some poor finishing and good goalkeeping kept us scoreless in that first 15 minutes. Alejandro Sanchez and Max Burgess were on-song once again for Sydney Olympic, they have probably been our 2 best players so far this season and were once again, our 2 most dangerous players in the first-half. 20 minutes in, they would combine to break the dead-lock, as some nice work from Sanchez saw the ball fall for Burgess who made no mistake to tap home and give us a 1-0 lead. It was good to see that we did not rest on our laurels, kept up the pressure and continued pushing for more goals. We had a couple of good chances to double our lead before Sanchez eventually did, around 10 minutes before half-time, with a good finish to put us 2-0 up. At the half-time break there was only one team in it and realistically we should have gone to the sheds 4 or 5 nil up. The confidence was there though that we would come out in the second-half and finish the job, so at 2-0 we looked comfortable.
That confidence diminished fairly quickly, as we looked like a different team to start the second-half. We looked sluggish and inside the first 20 minutes of the second-half, the opposition created 4-5 excellent chances and before we knew it our 2-0 lead had evaporated, as we conceded 2 goals in quick succession, we could have even shockingly found ourselves behind. We briefly awoke from our slumber late on in an attempt to re-take the lead, but in reality, it was the opposition who looked the more likely to find a winner. Fortunately, we did not concede again and at the full-time whistle, we had to accept the 2-2 result. It’s not about being an idiot and laying into anyone, but it was a poor second-half all-round, a more Jekyll & Hyde performance you will not see anywhere.
On the injury front, we now know that Hagi Gligor will join Jake de Marigny in missing the rest of the season with long-term injuries and it could be late June/early July before we see Paul Katsetis back. So, our depth will once again be tested, a problem the Club has experienced for the last few seasons. William Angel who we sorely missed yesterday, will be back next match after serving his suspension.
In the Club Championship, the U18s lost 4-0 and the U20s managed to grab a 1-1 draw. Same old, same old here.
For the FFA Cup, we have been drawn away to Terrigal United from the Central Coast in Round 5 of the competition. That match will more than likely take place next mid-week. Details TBC.
Our next match is this Sunday, April 29. We need to get back on the horse against an always difficult and enthusiastic Sydney FC NPL team, it is essential we bounce back straight away with a victory. Kick-Off is at 3pm at Belmore Sports Ground.
Monday 16 April 2018
Sydney Olympic 1-0 Blacktown City
Sydney Olympic has continued its great early
season form, seeing off the always difficult Blacktown City at Belmore Sports
Ground on Sunday. Grinding out the victory in what was at times a bruising
affair with Blacktown City, in a match which saw both sides reduced to 10-men.
The victory will likely come at a cost for us as Hagi Gligor was subbed off only 5 minutes into the match, after being on the receiving end of a shocking challenge which was for some strange reason unseen by the referee. I have been informed that the injury is a bad one and that he could miss between 8-12 weeks. We will also definitely be without William Angel for next week, as he managed to get himself sent off in the second-half.
It was a cautious beginning to the match by both teams and fairly soon it turned into a battle for midfield supremacy, with clear cut chances proving hard to come by. With the wind howling it made things a little difficult for the players trying to judge their passes and runs. As a result, the first-half was mostly devoid of clear cut opportunities, with both sides reduced to half-chances for the most part. We probably shaded it in the first-half in terms of possession and dominance and we definitely did have the best chance of the first-half, as Jason Madonis was found with a cross all alone at the back post but unfortunately, he skewed his volley wide. Around mid-way through the first half a Blacktown player was given a straight red card for a studs-up challenge on Jinya An. Disappointingly though, we seemed to relax and step back after this moment instead of attacking them, which resulted in the first-half we witnessed, as described above. At half-time the score was dead-locked at 0-0.
As a whole, the second-half generally went the same way as the first-half. We were the better side against what was now a 10-man Blacktown City and dominated proceedings for the first 20 minutes of the second-half. We looked threatening going forward and eventually we got our reward as Max Burgess headed home from a Jinya An corner. It was not long after this when we were reduced to 10-men with William Angel given his marching orders for picking up his second yellow card, it looked very soft it must be said. Naturally a team like Blacktown City were never going to just accept defeat and they began to push hard in search of an equaliser, Tom Whiteside and George Timotheou in defence worked hard to keep them at bay and Paul Henderson made a couple of good saves also. There were some nervy moments late on but we held on for the 1-0 win and our second clean sheet in a row.
So we have now gone 4 wins from 4 at home this season, in what was another good win for Sydney Olympic and already this season, we have shown that we can win matches playing in a variety of ways, against different types of opposition and in many types of conditions. We have built ourselves a good platform to now go on and have a good season.
For the Club Championship, the U18s lost 4-0 and the U20s lost 5-1, another terrible weekend for these teams as they both got hammered. If First Grade wasn’t going so well this season, we’d be in all sorts of trouble.
In last Friday’s – The Greek Herald – the paper published an interview it had with CEO John Boulous. The gist of it was that he and the board are working hard to build Sydney Olympic back up into a stable club off the field and improve all facets of the club on-field with our youth, womens, first grade teams and for them to all be successful, getting more fans engaged and getting them to come back to matches etc. All very nice admirable stuff and we hope to see the improvement continue.
Of course, the most pressing issue for the club and has been for God knows how long, is the lack of a permanent base. Since 2014 we have seen many announcements and read a lot of articles about the proposed Tempe project. I have no idea what is happening and I wouldn’t know how it works except that a lot of lobbying would be going on, but we have seen nothing as yet. All I’ll say is if some park sides are able to get their local councils to stump up millions for them I see no reason why a club like Sydney Olympic can’t get the same support, given how much Sydney Olympic Supporters have contributed to the local area generally. We will just have to wait and see what happens now with the Inner-West Council and the club.
Our next match is this Sunday, April 22, at home against Rockdale. As we all know, this particular team has free reign and enjoys the protection of the authorities and of FNSW to do as they please. From attacking our elderly supporters to damaging our property. These racists will once again come to provoke the Sydney Olympic Supporters and they will try to do what they always do, cause trouble at the ground and cause problems for Sydney Olympic. Hopefully the board has all bases covered ready for anything that eventuates from this mob. Kick-Off is at 3pm.
Let’s all unite and get down to the game on Sunday.
The victory will likely come at a cost for us as Hagi Gligor was subbed off only 5 minutes into the match, after being on the receiving end of a shocking challenge which was for some strange reason unseen by the referee. I have been informed that the injury is a bad one and that he could miss between 8-12 weeks. We will also definitely be without William Angel for next week, as he managed to get himself sent off in the second-half.
It was a cautious beginning to the match by both teams and fairly soon it turned into a battle for midfield supremacy, with clear cut chances proving hard to come by. With the wind howling it made things a little difficult for the players trying to judge their passes and runs. As a result, the first-half was mostly devoid of clear cut opportunities, with both sides reduced to half-chances for the most part. We probably shaded it in the first-half in terms of possession and dominance and we definitely did have the best chance of the first-half, as Jason Madonis was found with a cross all alone at the back post but unfortunately, he skewed his volley wide. Around mid-way through the first half a Blacktown player was given a straight red card for a studs-up challenge on Jinya An. Disappointingly though, we seemed to relax and step back after this moment instead of attacking them, which resulted in the first-half we witnessed, as described above. At half-time the score was dead-locked at 0-0.
As a whole, the second-half generally went the same way as the first-half. We were the better side against what was now a 10-man Blacktown City and dominated proceedings for the first 20 minutes of the second-half. We looked threatening going forward and eventually we got our reward as Max Burgess headed home from a Jinya An corner. It was not long after this when we were reduced to 10-men with William Angel given his marching orders for picking up his second yellow card, it looked very soft it must be said. Naturally a team like Blacktown City were never going to just accept defeat and they began to push hard in search of an equaliser, Tom Whiteside and George Timotheou in defence worked hard to keep them at bay and Paul Henderson made a couple of good saves also. There were some nervy moments late on but we held on for the 1-0 win and our second clean sheet in a row.
So we have now gone 4 wins from 4 at home this season, in what was another good win for Sydney Olympic and already this season, we have shown that we can win matches playing in a variety of ways, against different types of opposition and in many types of conditions. We have built ourselves a good platform to now go on and have a good season.
For the Club Championship, the U18s lost 4-0 and the U20s lost 5-1, another terrible weekend for these teams as they both got hammered. If First Grade wasn’t going so well this season, we’d be in all sorts of trouble.
In last Friday’s – The Greek Herald – the paper published an interview it had with CEO John Boulous. The gist of it was that he and the board are working hard to build Sydney Olympic back up into a stable club off the field and improve all facets of the club on-field with our youth, womens, first grade teams and for them to all be successful, getting more fans engaged and getting them to come back to matches etc. All very nice admirable stuff and we hope to see the improvement continue.
Of course, the most pressing issue for the club and has been for God knows how long, is the lack of a permanent base. Since 2014 we have seen many announcements and read a lot of articles about the proposed Tempe project. I have no idea what is happening and I wouldn’t know how it works except that a lot of lobbying would be going on, but we have seen nothing as yet. All I’ll say is if some park sides are able to get their local councils to stump up millions for them I see no reason why a club like Sydney Olympic can’t get the same support, given how much Sydney Olympic Supporters have contributed to the local area generally. We will just have to wait and see what happens now with the Inner-West Council and the club.
Our next match is this Sunday, April 22, at home against Rockdale. As we all know, this particular team has free reign and enjoys the protection of the authorities and of FNSW to do as they please. From attacking our elderly supporters to damaging our property. These racists will once again come to provoke the Sydney Olympic Supporters and they will try to do what they always do, cause trouble at the ground and cause problems for Sydney Olympic. Hopefully the board has all bases covered ready for anything that eventuates from this mob. Kick-Off is at 3pm.
Let’s all unite and get down to the game on Sunday.
Monday 9 April 2018
Marconi Stallions 0-2 Sydney Olympic
Ladies and Gentlemen, don’t let the score-line
fool you, it was a right mauling of the Marconi Stallions on Saturday Night.
The first 60 mins in particular was total dominance from Sydney Olympic and if
we had been more clinical in front of goal, it could have very easily been 5 or
6.
We did not have to wait long to open the scoring, as we opened them up at will early on and within the first 30 seconds of the match, Alejandro Sanchez had the ball in the back of the Marconi net to put us 1 goal to the good. Only a few minutes later we had another great chance to make it 2-0 but it was not to be. We were dominating possession and we were looking threatening every time we had the ball, while also having the bulk of the chances. Max Burgess found himself in good positions throughout the first-half and a couple of times he was found with a pass free on the edge of the box, the only thing that was lacking was power in the shot to seriously threaten the Marconi goal. Marconi had sporadic moments in that first-half but never really looked like troubling our defense in any meaningful way. Heading to the half-time break we looked in total control of the match and although we were only leading 1-0, we looked in ominous form to add to that in the second-half.
This turned out to be the case as we began the second-half very well, controlling the game as well as creating some more chances early on. We had a couple of half-chances which we could not put away, but 15 minutes into the second-half we would eventually get our reward. We broke away with the ball at pace to create a 3 on 3 situation, in the ensuing attack, the ball was subsequently teed up for Jason Madonis, who buried his shot into the back of the net to continue his great personal goal-scoring form in 2018 and give us a 2-0 lead. After this, inevitably Marconi came out and tried to get back into the game, by grabbing a goal and trying to turn the last 20 minutes into a contest. They did create a couple of opportunities, but we looked solid defensively and continued to deal with their threat very well. With them pushing for goals it did give us the ability to counter-attack but we could not add to our 2-0 lead, despite our chances. The match finished in a 2-0 victory for Sydney Olympic, we were well deserved victors.
It was another encouraging performance from Sydney Olympic, as we navigated our way through what could have been, a potentially difficult match. Of course, what is important at this time of the season is that we picked up another 3 points, as well as recorded our first clean sheet of the season.
For the Club Championship, the U18s lost 2-0 and the U20s lost 1-0. It is simply not good enough here. Horrible results again.
Last Tuesday Night we kicked-off our FFA/Waratah Cup campaign for 2018 at home to Emu Plains FC. It turned out to be a comfortable 7-0 win for Sydney Olympic, as we progressed to the next round. Radovan Pavicevic scored 4 goals, while Jason Madonis scored 3.
Our next match is on this Sunday Afternoon April 15, at home at Belmore Sports Ground against a team we do not have a very good recent record against, Blacktown City. Kick-Off is at 3pm. Get down there to support the players and the club.
We did not have to wait long to open the scoring, as we opened them up at will early on and within the first 30 seconds of the match, Alejandro Sanchez had the ball in the back of the Marconi net to put us 1 goal to the good. Only a few minutes later we had another great chance to make it 2-0 but it was not to be. We were dominating possession and we were looking threatening every time we had the ball, while also having the bulk of the chances. Max Burgess found himself in good positions throughout the first-half and a couple of times he was found with a pass free on the edge of the box, the only thing that was lacking was power in the shot to seriously threaten the Marconi goal. Marconi had sporadic moments in that first-half but never really looked like troubling our defense in any meaningful way. Heading to the half-time break we looked in total control of the match and although we were only leading 1-0, we looked in ominous form to add to that in the second-half.
This turned out to be the case as we began the second-half very well, controlling the game as well as creating some more chances early on. We had a couple of half-chances which we could not put away, but 15 minutes into the second-half we would eventually get our reward. We broke away with the ball at pace to create a 3 on 3 situation, in the ensuing attack, the ball was subsequently teed up for Jason Madonis, who buried his shot into the back of the net to continue his great personal goal-scoring form in 2018 and give us a 2-0 lead. After this, inevitably Marconi came out and tried to get back into the game, by grabbing a goal and trying to turn the last 20 minutes into a contest. They did create a couple of opportunities, but we looked solid defensively and continued to deal with their threat very well. With them pushing for goals it did give us the ability to counter-attack but we could not add to our 2-0 lead, despite our chances. The match finished in a 2-0 victory for Sydney Olympic, we were well deserved victors.
It was another encouraging performance from Sydney Olympic, as we navigated our way through what could have been, a potentially difficult match. Of course, what is important at this time of the season is that we picked up another 3 points, as well as recorded our first clean sheet of the season.
For the Club Championship, the U18s lost 2-0 and the U20s lost 1-0. It is simply not good enough here. Horrible results again.
Last Tuesday Night we kicked-off our FFA/Waratah Cup campaign for 2018 at home to Emu Plains FC. It turned out to be a comfortable 7-0 win for Sydney Olympic, as we progressed to the next round. Radovan Pavicevic scored 4 goals, while Jason Madonis scored 3.
Our next match is on this Sunday Afternoon April 15, at home at Belmore Sports Ground against a team we do not have a very good recent record against, Blacktown City. Kick-Off is at 3pm. Get down there to support the players and the club.
Sunday 1 April 2018
Sydney Olympic 2-1 Hakoah Sydney City-East
Another hot Sydney afternoon, greeted us at
Belmore Sports Ground for our Friday Afternoon clash with Hakoah. It looked
like it would be another difficult match for the players, who were playing in
their 3rd mid-30’s degrees match in a row, as well as coming off a
shorter turnaround.
As a result of maybe this, we were slow out of the blocks for this one and Hakoah seemed to get the jump on us in the first 10 or so minutes and even had a sneaky chance to take the lead before it was snuffed out. It was an up and down first-half of football from Sydney Olympic. We looked OK when passing the ball around, but in actual attacking situations we looked clunky, there was too much dilly-dallying with the ball when a quick early pass or cross would have done the trick and would have created huge problems for the opposition. In defensive terms we also looked fairly shaky. On a few occasions, our defense failed to deal with Hakoah’s long balls adequately and in a few instances, a few errors at the back opened up opportunities for Hakoah to score. Thankfully for us they couldn’t in that first-half. Despite all this we had a couple of good chances to score ourselves, but we had to wait 5 minutes before the half-time break to open the scoring. A Sydney Olympic corner wasn’t dealt with by the opposition and in the ensuing scramble George Timotheou smashed the ball into the back of the net to give us a 1-0 lead, which is how the score remained at the half-time interval.
The first few moments of the second-half were fairly subdued and we looked comfortable with our lead. Pretty soon though Hakoah turned up the pressure as they desperately sought an equaliser. They did have a few chances to score, only some last ditch desperate defending preserved our lead. We had patches where we looked dangerous in attack ourselves and we could have extended our lead, but it was the opposition who would grab an equaliser midway through the second-half from a shot after we failed to deal with a corner. There was a noticeable increase in urgency from Sydney Olympic after conceding the goal and pretty soon after we piled on the pressure and it paid off. After being awarded a freekick, the initial delivery was dealt with by the opposition but they could do nothing about the second ball which found Alejandro Sanchez, who nodded home to restore our lead with around 10 minutes remaining. In that time, we really should have just wound down the clock, held onto possession and held on for the win but instead we panicked, giving away too much ball in our defensive third and inviting a wave of pressure into our own goalmouth. Only some last-ditch defending, poor finishing from Hakoah and the woodwork saved us and stopped us from dropping points. It was a relief then, when the referee finally blew for full-time to seal our 3rd win after 4 rounds.
On the officiating for this match, it was amateurish to say the least, it was as if they had no idea about the rules of the game, really poor. For us overall, it was a patchy performance against a team that is good at dragging their opposition down to their level and turning matches into scraps, which is what the game turned into. But it was also a good test of character for the team and the players, so we did well to come through it in that aspect.
It is also 3 wins from 3 now at home this season, which is great and hopefully we can turn Belmore into a fortress this season.
For the Club Championship, the U18s did not play, but the U20s did come up with a big 3-0 win.
Our next match is this Tuesday Night April 3, in Round 4 of the FFA Cup against Emu Plains FC, the match will be played at Peter Moore Field, which is behind the hill at Belmore Sports Ground, Kick-Off is at 7.30pm.
As a result of maybe this, we were slow out of the blocks for this one and Hakoah seemed to get the jump on us in the first 10 or so minutes and even had a sneaky chance to take the lead before it was snuffed out. It was an up and down first-half of football from Sydney Olympic. We looked OK when passing the ball around, but in actual attacking situations we looked clunky, there was too much dilly-dallying with the ball when a quick early pass or cross would have done the trick and would have created huge problems for the opposition. In defensive terms we also looked fairly shaky. On a few occasions, our defense failed to deal with Hakoah’s long balls adequately and in a few instances, a few errors at the back opened up opportunities for Hakoah to score. Thankfully for us they couldn’t in that first-half. Despite all this we had a couple of good chances to score ourselves, but we had to wait 5 minutes before the half-time break to open the scoring. A Sydney Olympic corner wasn’t dealt with by the opposition and in the ensuing scramble George Timotheou smashed the ball into the back of the net to give us a 1-0 lead, which is how the score remained at the half-time interval.
The first few moments of the second-half were fairly subdued and we looked comfortable with our lead. Pretty soon though Hakoah turned up the pressure as they desperately sought an equaliser. They did have a few chances to score, only some last ditch desperate defending preserved our lead. We had patches where we looked dangerous in attack ourselves and we could have extended our lead, but it was the opposition who would grab an equaliser midway through the second-half from a shot after we failed to deal with a corner. There was a noticeable increase in urgency from Sydney Olympic after conceding the goal and pretty soon after we piled on the pressure and it paid off. After being awarded a freekick, the initial delivery was dealt with by the opposition but they could do nothing about the second ball which found Alejandro Sanchez, who nodded home to restore our lead with around 10 minutes remaining. In that time, we really should have just wound down the clock, held onto possession and held on for the win but instead we panicked, giving away too much ball in our defensive third and inviting a wave of pressure into our own goalmouth. Only some last-ditch defending, poor finishing from Hakoah and the woodwork saved us and stopped us from dropping points. It was a relief then, when the referee finally blew for full-time to seal our 3rd win after 4 rounds.
On the officiating for this match, it was amateurish to say the least, it was as if they had no idea about the rules of the game, really poor. For us overall, it was a patchy performance against a team that is good at dragging their opposition down to their level and turning matches into scraps, which is what the game turned into. But it was also a good test of character for the team and the players, so we did well to come through it in that aspect.
It is also 3 wins from 3 now at home this season, which is great and hopefully we can turn Belmore into a fortress this season.
For the Club Championship, the U18s did not play, but the U20s did come up with a big 3-0 win.
Our next match is this Tuesday Night April 3, in Round 4 of the FFA Cup against Emu Plains FC, the match will be played at Peter Moore Field, which is behind the hill at Belmore Sports Ground, Kick-Off is at 7.30pm.
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