Sutherland Sharks end Olympic’s finals aspirations for 2009
Sydney Olympic barely touched the ball in the opening 5? minutes as the Sharks came out firing on all cylinders in a match so important to both teams as a loss meant the visitors were out of the Top Five race for the TeleChoice Premier League, whilst Sutherland kept alive the reality of perhaps finishing as high as third ? pending other results.
The Sharks duly took the lead through Panni Nikas in the 7? minute from a Jimmy Bakis corner that eluded the defence as both Brad Boardman and Neil Jablonski made nuisances of themselves for Nikas to latch-on to the ball and slot home from close-range.
The visitors looked rattled but gradually fought their way back into the game with no small thanks to Mark Bosnich who was called upon on several occasions with timely interventions from Nikas again, followed by a Chris Price cross 2? minutes later.
Chris Triantis tried his luck from distance for the visitors halfway through the half that Nathan Denham did well to save at full stretch and Paul Wither soon after with a long-range effort that went agonisingly wide before Bosnich made two point-blank saves from Nikas and Boardman that defied belief with the agility and reactions of the Olympic custodian.
It proved a lost cause soon after though, as Bakis again took a corner and played it short to Nick Stavroulakis. His cross was glanced home by Nikas to give the Sharks a 2-0 lead at the interval.
It wasn?t so much a case of Sydney Olympic playing badly as they produced some terrific free-flowing football as the final ball option, and the stout defending of George Souris, Ben Spruce and the Man-of the-Match performance of Michael Robinson, who didn?t put a foot wrong and was ably assisted by Stavroulakis who was just about everywhere on the park with tenacious tackling and several headed clearances to defuse half-chances set up by the visitors.
Sydney Olympic swapped Peter McPherson for Matthew Mayora at the break and he was unlucky not to pull a goal back inside 60?? seconds of the re-start although a magnificent save by Denham denied the opportunity as Olympic pushed to forward to save their season.
They had nothing to lose but everything to gain but as they switched to a back three to push forward they left gaps at the back which the pace of Price, Boardman and Katz were able to exploit as it left Bosnich fraudulently exposed at times. They were made to pay again when Bakis stole the ball in midfield and fed Nikas who in turn played it on to Price who went one-on-one with Bosnich and rounded the shot-stopper before slotting joyfully home.
Some heads dropped for the visiting side as they saw their season disintegrate as Boardman completed the scoring for Sutherland when finding the net in the 80? minute that sparked some tantalising celebrations.
With the contest well and truly over, Sydney Olympic did get a consolation goal in stoppage time through Emmanuel Giannaros.
The Sharks had a number of standouts but defender Michael Robinson was on par as one of the best on the pitch alongside Stavroulakis and Chris Price.
Sydney Olympic coach Nick Theodorakopoulos said afterwards:
?Full credit must go to Robbie (Stanton) and his side for the way they played tonight.
?I?m not disappointed with the way we played but this a semi-professional league and some of the players think that way so I am disappointed with that as they do know better.
?Overall we played some good football but I have noticed over the years that after a big match, like we had last weekend, it often is a case of being a little flat the next one and so it proved and our final ball wasn?t good and that has been our downfall over the past few weeks and our defence has sometimes been best described as slack.
?That said, teams like Sutherland are coming to the fore at the right time of the season and it?s teams like this that should go on to win the title so again I give credit to Robbie and Sutherland for what they have achieved, they were terrific tonight.?
Robbie Stanton was gracious in victory over his old coach:
?It was a big game for both teams and we lucky enough to come home strong especially as it was a squad effort that won us the game as the guys who came on did the job they were asked to do.
?We were fast and I though dynamic at times this evening which coupled with the high work rate meant we were able to set the tempo of the match.
?We have also been in a position where we have been able to dictate how our season has gone and I know from experience as a player that it?s incredibly difficult for a side like Olympic to chase down from their position in the league to make the finals but to have come so close has seen a tremendous effort although I know how gutted the players will be feeling right now.
?They didn?t make it easy for us but no Nick Theodorakopoulos side is an easy touch so credit to him and Olympic.
In the Grade-20 encounter, Sutherland Sharks defeated Sydney Olympic by the same margin as the first grade, 4-1.
Match Stats
Sutherland Sharks 4 (Panni Nikas 7?, 42?, Chris Price 54?, Brad Boardman 80?)
Sydney Olympic 1 (Emmanuel Giannaros 91?)
Saturday, 1st August, 2009
Seymour Shaw Park, Miranda
Referee: Gerard Parsons
Assistant Referees: Scott Edeling and Gareth Askham
Fourth Official: Chris Young
Attendance: Approx 800
Sutherland Sharks: 1.Nathan Denham; 2.George Souris, 4.Michael Robinson, 6.Chris Price, 7.Jimmy Bakis (10.Matthew Hall 70?), 9.Brad Boardman, 11.Ben Spruce, 12.Neil Jablonski, 14.Nick Stavroulakis, 15.Michael Katz (3.Yanni Fragogiannis 80?), 23.Panni Nikas (8.Nathan Ralph 58?)
Substitutes Not Used: 17.Jordan Nikolovski, 21.Aram Tayebi
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
Sydney Olympic: 13.Mark Bosnich; 3.Emmanuel Zunino, 5.Michael Cindric, 6.Emmanuel Giannaros, 7.Peter McPherson (15.Matthew Mayora 46?), 8.Paul Wither, 9.Anthony Hartshorn, 10.Anthony Doumanis, 14 Chris Triantis, 17 Iain Ramsay (22 Jerry Kalouris 89), 18 Adam Biddle (19 Ken Chung 76)
Substitutes Not Used: 1.Michael Turnbull, 4.Mirko Jurilj
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
-By Micky Brock
