A.P.I.A.-Leichhardt Pay The Penalty

Home side Sydney Olympic battled out a 3-0 win over A.P.I.A.-Leichhardt Tigers in what many would suppose to be a romp in the park.
However, the beleaguered A.P.I.A.-Leichhardt were no pushovers and at times played some delightful football along with their counterparts; however, it came in sporadic bursts in a stop-start match that had little to do with the players and everything with the officials.
Chris Triantis must still be wondering what actually took place after turning in a ?Man-of the-Match? performance for the home side and still finding himself hitting the showers early after an injury-time sending off at the end of the game.
Receiving a first yellow card for, allegedly, ?raising his shirt up to his lips? after scoring his second penalty in the 69? minute, he collected another, and therefore red, for an innocuous challenge at the end of 90? minutes in what appeared to all as a fair tackle.
But he wasn?t the first to hit the showers as A.P.I.A.-Leichhardt defender Michael Galluzzo got his marching orders for a deliberate handball inside the area as Triantis netted his first spot-kick of the game to give Sydney Olympic the lead.
Paul Wither was lucky to remain on the field prior to this incident as he for the home team after blatantly shoved an A.P.I.A.-Leichhardt player to the ground at the end of the first stanza where he received no more than a caution.
Despite the regular pauses to the game due to the referee?s whistle, when the sides got to play football, it was intriguing stuff with both sides creating plenty of chances and although under strength with neither playing their best TeleChoice Premier League football of the campaign, it was two evenly matched teams striving for a result.
Matthew Nash in the A.P.I.A. goal had to be on his mettle as Triantis tested him inside the first minute, but a well judged save thwarted the danger and within the first ten-minutes of the match Franco Parisi had his effort from an acute angle deflected on the netting atop the goal for the visitors.
Galluzzo should then have been sent-off for his first handball inside the area before 15-minutes were on the clock ? the Tigers Captain would ride his luck on this occasion, but not the next one.
Perhaps the best chance of the half came when Robert Younis was put through and his shot-cum-cross was whipped low across goal but with no-one following in, the opportunity went begging.
Sadly the match was never allowed to flow so neither team could truly find their rhythm nor start to play the football everyone knows they can and with the send-off it would have been forgiven had the Tigers dropped their heads and caved in.
They didn?t. The shoulders may have drooped a little but they chased the game – in doing so, they left gaps to be exploited and Sydney Olympic are masters at doing that.
To round off the scoring was a well executed move when Iain Ramsay was sent clear down the left-flank and his cross found Anthony Hartshorn who slotted home to complete the 3-0 score-line.
A crestfallen and somewhat disgruntled A.P.I.A.-Leichhardt Tigers Coach John Romeo, declined to comment after the game and, it has to be said, quite rightly so.
In a show of solidarity, Sydney Olympic boss Milan Blagojevic, bemused by the events witnessed, also rightly decided ?no comment? was the appropriate response.
MATCH STATS
Sydney Olympic 3 (Chris Triantis 59? (pen), 69? (pen), Anthony Hartshorn 73?
A.P.I.A.-Leichhardt Tigers  0
Sydney Olympic: 1. Michael Herbert; 16. Nathan Sherlock, 4. Mirko Jurilj, 5. Michael Cindric, 3. Emmanuel Zunino (11. Carlo Musumeci 68?), 18. Chris Triantis, 7. Milorad Simonovic, 9. Anthony Hartshorn, 17. Iain Ramsay, 10. Anthony Doumanis (15. Matthew Mayora 76?), 8. Paul Wither (19. Marino Musumeci 84?)
Substitutes Not Used: 37. S At-Tal, 20. Sam Emmanouil
Yellow Cards: Anthony Hartshorn 59?, Chris Triantis 70?
Red Cards: Chris Triantis 90?
A.P.I.A.-Leichhardt Tigers: 1. Matthew Nash; 3. John Kelso, 4. Daniel Clifford, 5. Michael Galluzzo, 7. Stephen Kayes, 8. Iain King (15. Joshua Lawson 74?), 9. Robert Younis, 10. Franco Parisi, 12. Marton Vass, 14. Joseph Bruni, 19. Jason Garrido
Substitutes Not Used: 20. Michael Rutherford, 26. Tim Mascarello, 27. Sebastian Petralito, 33. Daine Merrin
Yellow Cards: Marton Vass 35?
Red Cards: Michael Galluzzo 68?
Referee: Atila Stibinger
Assistant Referees: Nick Backo, Michael Seaborn
Venue: Belmore Sports Ground
Crowd: 1103
Player Ratings:
3 ? Chris Triantis (SO)
2 ? Iain Ramsay (SO)
1 ? John Kelso (ALT)
-By Micky Brock