Promising signs - Sydney Olympic 2-1 A.P.I.A. Leichhardt

Just briefly before I get into last night's match. I will mention our Waratah Cup Semi-Final on Wednesday night at Belmore, which by all accounts is the match where the team's form improved and subsequently turned our season around. All be it we were knocked out after being beaten 2-1 in Extra-Time by Blacktown City.

On to last night, due to the inclement weather of the last week, our scheduled Sunday 3pm home game against A.P.I.A was moved to Lambert Park (A.P.I.A's home ground), which automatically put us behind the 8-Ball. The performance and result more than made up for this inconvenience though.

The 1st half began brightly for Olympic as we were back to playing our up-tempo style that saw us surge to top spot in the early part of the season. Will Angel and Troy Danaskos were lively on the Left-Hand side with the former making some very nice runs and carving out some good opportunities. The Japanese duo were buzzing in midfield, and Harris Gaitatzis and Dimi Hatzimouratis were linking well up front. Our good play of the first 20 minutes was rewarded when a long ball went through to Will Angel who chipped the on-coming A.P.I.A Goalkeeper, hit the under-side of the bar, and went in. A great finish and we were 1-0 up and playing well. We had several chances to increase our lead in the 1st half, but through some poor play and naivety at the back, we let A.P.I.A back into the match with a soft goal, we went to the halftime break all square at 1-1.

We came out up-beat to start the 2nd half, and 3 minutes in we restored our lead via a fine Leigh Egger header from a corner. Understandably, A.P.I.A who have been scoring for fun as of late turned up the pressure in their bid for an equaliser, but every time, they were thwarted by young John Dimitrakas who at 17 years old was making his debut in goals for the club. The young man played out of his skin and helped to keep the score at 2-1. Around 20 minutes into the 2nd half Brendan Hooper limped off to be replaced by Petar Markovic, and 5 minutes later an exhausted Yianni Spyrakis who had a very good game was replaced by Ryan Keir. Despite A.P.I.A's attacks we had several chances of our own to kill the game, but we were foiled by A.P.I.A's Goalkeeper who also had a good game. To the relief of the supporters the referee blew for fulltime and we had secured a much needed and much deserved victory.

So an important win for the club, and great to see everybody play well, including those who came on in the 2nd half. Also nice to see plenty of Olympic supporters at the ground last night. Hopefully this win gets our season back on track and gives us the impetus to make a charge for the top.

Our next match is this Sunday away at Rockdale - kickoff 3pm.