Joseski seals Bankstown victory
Goals to Richard Luksic and Angelo Petratos had the sides level until Zlatko Joseski scored from the penalty-spot, and made a number of critical saves, to secure his side the three points.
Early on in the match Sydney Olympic were dealt a cruel blow when captain Anthony Doumanis was forced off in the 3? minute through injury. The home-side then had, a minute later, claims of a penalty as James Monie went down in the area, though those claims were quickly dismissed by referee Andrew Best.
Demonstrating what type of a game it would, the ball headed up the other end of the park where a Shannon Burgin corner was headed back from the far post and only half-cleared by Sydney Olympic. With Ibrahim Haydar, who played despite injury, on the edge of the area, the Lions player lined-up the ball though hit his effort well-wide of the target.
Good interchange between Iain Ramsay and James Monie in the 7? minute saw Monie fouled on the edge of the area but Olympic were let down by the set play, something that would continue to occur throughout the game.
Ramsay kept on with his dangerous runs though Bankstown?s Billy Tsanidis stood strong in defence at right back. In the 10? minute, Tsanidis tackled Ramsey off the ball and then collected it and played it out of danger, showing his worth to the Lions back-line.
The first quarter of the match had seen Bankstown with much more of the play but unable to put any real shots on target, whilst the home-side too could have made much more of the quality opportunities they were creating for themselves.
An interchange of free-kicks at either end saw opportunities go wide of the target before the 26? minute provided the first goal of the game.
The ball was put over from a corner by Burgin and George Nohra was given space in the penalty-area to turn on the ball. He tried to shoot but the ball deflected away from the target towards Luksic who tried to put the ball into the back of the net. He was denied by Paul Henderson in the Olympic goal but the ball only deflected off his hands and Luksic basically tripped over the ball as it fell between two defenders and finished into the back of the net. There was some luck about it but the Bankstown supporters would tell you it was the kind of luck that has been missing this season.
Immediately Sydney Olympic headed up-field through Chris Triantis but Haydar was there to deny him a shot on goal. Olympic continued with pressure but it seemed the likes of Tsanidis and Haydar were going to stop them all day. Triantis was joined in the attacking forays by Monie, Ramsey and Nik Tsattalios but they were not leading up to goals.
In the 36? minute this changed with Tsattalios hitting a free-kick from 30-metres out into the middle of the area. The ball seemed to deflect off a player and put the Bankstown defence off as Angelo Petratos ran straight between the defenders and onto the ball before softly slotting it past an advancing Joseski.
Despite the end-to-end nature of the game the chances on target were few and far between up until the break, with both defences standing firm.
In the 51? minute Burgin played Mileski into the area but yet again the defence bustled an attacker off the ball, as was repeated at the feet of Salameh a minute later. Up at the other end Ramsay and Tsattalios were denied by Ibrahim Haydar.
Then in the 56? minute Paul Henderson conceded a free-kick by taking the ball out of the penalty-area. Again, the chance was spurned as Salameh curled the ball over the crossbar.
In the 63? minute a wide ball from the right by Burgin was put into the path of Steve Liavas on the left and he cut the ball back to Nohra who stepped inside the defenders and shot the ball goalwards but it went just the wrong side of the near post.
On 64? minutes, Angelo Petratos conceded a free-kick in a dangerous position. Mileski floated the free-kick into the area and Luksic headed the ball goalwards only to be denied by a fine Henderson save. That was not the end of the play though as referee Best pointed to the spot as he adjudged an Olympic player to have held back Luksic in the penalty-area. Zlatko Joseski ran the length of the field to successfully convert the 65? minute penalty.
Back at the end he should have been at, Joseski then proved his worth. After a foul on Monie, Dimitri Petratos fired a free-kick on target but a diving save by Joseski at the near post denied the young Olympic star.
In the 73? minute Chris Triantis did finally beat Joseski only to see the ball cannon off the far post and away from danger. 2? minutes later Joseski swept off his line to deny Ramsey what would have been a clear one-on-one opportunity for the home-side.
In the last 10? minutes, the match continued to go from end-to-end but perhaps the most amazing play occurred in the 83? minute when Olympic should have scored four times only for Joseski to save the ball off the line on three occasions, and the defence to combine to keep the ball out on the fourth. They were almost punished further for these misses as Mileski and Salameh combined to almost score at the other end.
With 3? minutes to go, Burgin and Mileski combined to create a great chance but Henderson denied them with a good save.
The final chance of the match fell to Phil Makrys but he could not help his new side get on even terms with his old team as he fired his long distance shot over the crossbar.
Peter Tsekenis was delighted with the result considering the circumstances:
?I had to reshuffle the team today and as it was some of my players played with injuries, so we were in all sorts straight away and we were starting from a non winning base as it was.
?All the players had jobs to do, we put pressure on Olympic in certain parts of the field and it worked.
?Joseski then stood up and saved us at both ends of the park. For us it is now about taking one game at a time and building on today?s win gradually.?
Andre Gumprecht was disappointed with the result:
?Our major problem was we switched on too late today. We also relied on long balls which we were never going to beat such a tall team as Bankstown with. We were too direct and needed to play more on the park.
?We only had a chance when we played the ball along the ground. We did great in some parts of our game today but was let down by the quality of our crosses. These are areas we need to work on this week to get back on track.?
In the Grade-20 division, Bankstown City secured a club record seventh win on the trot with a 2-0 victory over Sydney Olympic.
Match Stats
Sydney Olympic 1 (36? Angelo Petratos)
Bankstown City 2 (Richard Luksic 26? Zlatko Joseski 65? pen)
Sunday May 30th, 2010
Belmore Sports Ground, Belmore
Referee: Andrew Best
Assistant Referees: Adam Coombs and Steve Nguyen
Fourth Official: Matthew Samson
Sydney Olympic: 13.Paul HENDERSON; 33.Nik TSATTALIOS, 18.Jerry KALOURIS, 5.Tayfun DEVRIMOL, 22.Dmitri PETRATOS, 10.Anthony DOUMANIS (4.Angelo PETRATOS 3?), (24.Mitchell STAMATELIS 74?), 21.Ricky PERINICH, 9.James MONIE, 17.Ian RAMSEY, 8.Chris TRIANTIS, 11.Phil MAKRYS
Substitutes Not Used: 1.Zaim ZANELLI, 23.Luke GEARIN
Yellow Cards: Perinich 23?, Kalouris 40?, Petratos 63?, Devrimol 65?, Triantis 78?
Red Cards: Nil
Bankstown City: 1.Zlatko JOSESKI; 3.Shannon BURGIN, 5.Richard LUKSIC, 26.Ibrahim HAYDAR, 10.Robert MILESKI (99.Chris GODOY BASCUR 90?+4?), 18.William ANGEL, 23.Tallin MARTIN (16.Damien BROSQUE 90?+2?), 20.Hussein SALAMEH (80.Ali HAYDAR 88?), 8.George NOHRA, 7.Steve LIAVAS , 12.Billy TSANIDIS
Substitutes Not Used: 11.Laurence THOMAS, 97.Cameron WHITE
Yellow Cards: Luksic 60?
Red Cards: Nil
-By Stuart Jones
