Sydney Olympic surpass Manly United

An own goal from United skipper Richard Williams and a glancing header from Matthew Mayora on the hour mark wrapped up the three points for the Blues, who have now scored eleven goals in their last three outings.
Paul Wither and Anthony Hartshorn both went within a whisker of opening the scoring after 12? minutes but saw their efforts hacked to safety by the scrambling Manly defence.
United?s Robbie Cattanach then had the chance to break his goal scoring duck four minutes later but blazed his free-kick over the crossbar following a foul on Craig Midgley.
Mayora should have troubled the scorers after 25? minutes but saw his point-blank header well parried by Brad Swancott.
Three minutes later Chris Triantis had the travelling Belmore faithful in a euphoric mood after creating the game?s opening goal.
After cutting inside a Beau Busch challenge, Triantis shot from the edge of the area and saw his strike cannon off the head of Williams and past Swancott for a deserved lead.
Six minutes before the break Milorad Simonovic rattled the crossbar from 20-yards following up a Shannon Cole deflected free-kick and you got the feeling yet another home loss for Manly was a possibility given their lack of bite across the park.
A surging run down the left-flank from defender Emmanuel Zunino saw Olympic deliver the knockout blow after 60? minutes.
After linking up with Roger Galayini, Zunino produced an inch perfect ball from the byline onto the head of the advancing Mayora, who was unmarked on the six-yard box and duly guided his effort inside the far post.
Sydney FC?s teenage recruit Chris Payne should have halved the deficit on 75? minutes but his control let him down at the final moment, allowing Michael Herbert to clear the danger.
Olympic coach Milan Blagojevic described his team?s performance as ?dominant? and feels they are clicking into gear at the right time: 
?It was a must win game away from home with second spot up for grabs and I thought we were great, especially in the second-half, we dominated,? he said.
?At the moment everyone is fit and competition for spots is fierce which brings the best out of everyone.
?We have A.P.I.A.-Leichhardt and Sydney United the next two games and both will provide a good test for us. 
?I drummed into the boys that the hard work starts now, we will continue to prepare as a unit for the finals.?
His counterpart Phil Moss admitted the fate of his team was on a knife?s edge, with the possibility of missing the finals all together staring him in the face: 
?Up until their second goal I felt we were in the game, it was a good arm wrestle between two decent teams,? he said. 
?At the moment our attitude isn?t anywhere near where it should be, not enough boys are turning up on match day.
 ?At training when there is no pressure the boys play the house down but at the moment we are lacking the temperament required to pick up points on weekends.
?We had too many players who didn?t believe we could get out of jail after we conceded that second goal and for me that just isn?t good enough.?
Match Stats
Sydney Olympic 2 (Richard Williams own goal 28?, Matthew Mayora 60?)
Manly United 0
Venue: Cromer Park
Referee: Kris Griffith Jones
Assistants: Adam Dayerian and Greg McLoughlin
Crowd: 800 (approx)
Manly United FC: 1. Brad SWANCOTT; 2. Adam ISRAEL , 5. Pascal JULLIARD, 6. Brad GROVES , 8. Michael WILLIAMS, (10. Dusan MIHAJLOVIC 61?) 9. Robbie CATTANACH, 11. Craig MIDGLEY, 19. Richie WILLIAMS (12. Michael LLOYD-GREEN 45?) 16. Joey SCHIRRIPA, 18. Beau BUSCH, 33. Chris PAYNE (14. Caetano LIMA 81?)
Substitutes Not Used: 21.Luke FEMIA (RGK) 15.Cameron JONES
Yellow Cards: Robbie CATTANACH 91?
Red Cards: Nil
Sydney Olympic: 1. Michael HERBERT; 14. Shannon COLE, 4. Mirko JURILJ, 5. Matthew JURMAN, 3. Emmanuel ZUNINO, 7. Milorad SIMONOVIC, 6. Roger GALAYINI, (10. Anthony DOUMANIS 81?) 15. Matthew MAYORA, (22. Peter ZORBAS 70?) 18. Chris TRIANTIS, (37. Siraj AL-TALL 53?) 9. Anthony HARTSHORN, 8. Paul WITHER
Substitutes Not Used: 16. Nathan SHERLOCK, 20. Sam EMMANOUIL(RGK)
Yellow Cards: Roger GALAYINI 51?
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 – Milorad Simonovic (SO)
2 – Matthew Jurman (SO)
1 – Shannon Cole (SO)
-By Andrew Prentice