Stallions grab second spot after last gasp win over Olympic

Sydney Olympic started the better of the two sides working the ball well across the pitch and earned a corner in the first minute of play.
From the resulting corner, Peter McPherson crossed the ball right across goal which missed all the defenders and the waiting Michael Cindric which could have been an early goal for the home side.
Two minutes later and a counter attack by Marconi allowed Ben Vidaic to send a clever through ball that found Alex Canak beating the offside trap and went one on one with Mark Bosnich. Luckily for Olympic, Canak failed with his chance as he passed the ball to the left of the goal.
With the game then shifting into a slow pace, Olympic and Marconi?s defence stood tall and battled hard with minimal chances falling in front of goal.
Marconi began working their flanks well and in the 17^th minute a great cross by Vuko Tomasevic met Vidaic who should have done better, blasting a volley well over the goals and out for a goal kick.
As Marconi began dominating play, Ali Abbas Al-Hilfi sent a great floating cross in the 22^nd minute. As Canak rose well to head the ball, a lack of direction again sent it out for a goal kick.
In the 26^th minute Olympic gained possession and after some nice touches through the middle won a corner.
In a clear chance, Cindric again was waiting at the back post for a touch to place the ball home, only for Andrea Merenda to block the ball and send it out of the box
Marconi then struck back with another chance of their own, as Al-Hilfi again sent a pin point cross this time to the chest of Matt Gordon. After controlling the ball, his half volley went wide of the posts which continued to frustrate the Stallions.
Following that chance, Sydney Olympic began playing great football with short passes around the field tiring the Marconi midfield.
And in the 33^rd minute, a trademark run down the right from Emmanuel Giannaros ended in a cross which met the head of Matthew Mayora, however Stallions keeper James Chronopoulos got a touch to the ball and then regathered to thwart the chance.
On the stroke of half time however, a missed timed pass by Emmanuel Zunino in the back for Olympic had Bosnich under pressure to clear the ball.
Bosnich got to the ball, however kicked straight into the advancing Vidaic who was unlucky not to regather the ball and take his team into the half-time break 1-0 ahead.
Marconi again started the better of the two sides in the second half, working the ball well attempting to feed their hungry strikers in front of goal.
Sydney Olympic however were gifted with the first chance of the second half in the 52^nd minute.
After winning the ball on half way, three quick fire passes across the field found Iain Ramsey on the right with a world of space. In attacking mode, Ramsey turned Wade Oostendorp well but shot poorly with his right foot well wide of goal.
Marconi however then began attacking again in what was turning into a game of end to end action.
Great play from Al-Hilfi on the left saw him thread a neat through ball to Tomasevic in the 56^th minute.
A great cross by Tomasevic was miss-judged by Zunino which allowed Canak to step past Cindric and strike the ball at point black range onto the cross bar in what should have been a simple goal for Marconi.
Finally for Olympic their hard work in the middle created a chance in the 65^th minute. Another great early cross by Giannaros on the right met Mayora?s head however his header went straight down the throat of the waiting Chronopoulos.
Giannaros continued to pester the right hand side of defence for Marconi and in the 72^nd minute could have easily broken the dead lock but Chronopoulos was again on hand to cleverly save the ball.
The pressure finally broke the Stallions defence in the 73^rd minute with Ken Chun fed a classic through ball for Matthew Mayora.
A great first touch allowed Mayora the chance to strike the ball cleanly and beat the extended Chronopoulos as he buried the ball in the bottom right hand corner of the goal for the 1-0 lead.
Stallions coach Lee Sterrey began feeling the pressure and brought on attacker Eric Anabalon and Daniel Ott with 11 minutes remaining.
Within five minutes the move worked wonders and provided the equaliser for Marconi.
A great Anabalon ball was met well by Tim McGowan who buried the ball that hit the back of the net making it 1-1.
Never one to give up, Giannaros continued a great game providing another pinpoint cross in the 88^th minute which Anthony Hartshorn touched well but his shot lacked the venom needed to pepper the Stallions goal-line.
In a complete shock to the Olympic faithful, a missed pass by Cindric fell to Anabalon who fed Vidaic on the right in a two on one situation, with Vidaic slotting the ball in the net to give Marconi the win in the 89^th minute.
Following the game, Marconi?s goalkeeper James Chronopoulos was ecstatic with coming from behind to get the win and most importantly claiming second spot on the TeleChoice Premier League ladder.
? We worked hard at training all week, as Lee (Sterrey) just said in the change room having to win from behind makes it tougher for ourselves, but all the boys stuck it out today and at the end we got the result.
?It?s great to get second position obviously we get home ground advantage and no matter who we play I think we will put a good effort in.?
Sydney Olympic striker Matthew Mayora, who ended up as the 2009 Andreas Golden Boot winner with 15 goals, was less than satisfied but drew some positives from the match.
?We didn?t have our full squad today we only had 12 senior players due to some boys going to the A-League and others trialling overseas which made it tough for us.
?It feels great to be the top goal scorer, that last goal was very emotional for me. But I am not just doing it for me I am doing it for my team as I have been all season.?
In the grade 20?s, Sydney Olympic defeated the Marconi Stallions 1-0 in a replay of last season?s Grand Final.
Match Details
Sydney Olympic 1 (Matthew Mayora 73?)
Marconi Stallions 2 (Tim McGowan 84?, Ben Vidaic 89?)
Referee: Sandro Perticarini
Assistant Referees: Alex Long & Lance Greenshields
Fourth Official: Mark Mitchell
Venue: Belmore Sports Ground, Belmore
Crowd: 350 approx
Sydney Olympic: 13. Mark Bosnich (gk) (1. Zain Zanelli 46?), 3. Emmanuel Zunino, 5. Michael Cindric (c), 6. Emmanuel Giannaros, 7. Peter McPherson, 8. Paul Wither, 9. Anthony Hartshorn, 10. Anthony Doumanis (12. Alex Jovovic 89?), 15. Matthew Mayora, 17. Iain Ramsey, 19. Ken Chun (22. Peter Triantis 75?)
Substitutions Not Used: 23. Daniel Firth
Yellow Cards: Michael Cindric 68?
Marconi Stallions: 22. James Chronopoulos (gk), 2. Wade Oostendorp (c), 4. Umut Togdogan (9. Eric Anabalon 79?), 6. Vuko Tomasevic , 8. Alex Canak, 10. Ali Abbas Al-Hilfi, 11. Matt Gordon (15. Tim McGowan 46?), 13. Ben Vidaic, 17. Vamara Diarra, 23. Christopher Nunes (14. Daniel Ott 79?), 30. Andrea Merenda
Substitutions Not used: 20. Cem Akilli (gk)
Yellow Cards: Ali Abbas Al-Hilfi 53?, Vamara Diarra 88?
-By Chris Georgakopoulos