Olympic hold out Blacktown City to scoreless draw
It was a night of missed opportunities as Blacktown City succumbed to a 0-0 draw with Sydney Olympic during their PlayStation®4 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s clash at Belmore Sports Ground.
Paul Henderson and the Olympic defence was in fine form as they kept out a relentless Blacktown attack.
Looking to capitalise on the points dropped by Sydney United 58 on Saturday, Blacktown City began started the match full steam ahead.
Mitchell Mallia had a chance within the first five minutes when he stung the palms of Paul Henderson with a powerful shot.
The former Sydney FC striker was central to most of the action for Blacktown City in the first half.
Mallia found space behind the Olympic defence several times but couldn’t finish.
In the 21st minute Mallia had the best chance of the first half when he was found in the box but smashed it against the bar.
Olympic had their moments in attack as well.
Joseph Gaspari was vibrant in the middle and fizzed an effort just beyond the post of Nenad Vekic.
Most of the half belonged to Blacktown City – Major and Mallia combined in the 42nd minute Which needed to be touched past the post by Henderson.
Major had his own effort a minute later from a Patrick Antelmi cross but the former Mariner could only cushion it into the busy hands of Henderson.
The Olympic shot stopper was kept active all night but repelled Blacktown at every opportunity which raised the spirits of an Olympic side struggling for confidence.
Blacktown City continued the onslaught when Joey Gibbs shot right into Henderson and out for a corner.
The visitors were disappointing on set pieces all night.
Gaspari created Olympics best chance in the 58th minute when he created space for himself and tested Vekic. The keeper duly responded to keep the clean sheet.
As time ticked away in the game both sides started to gets stretched, Olympic were a threat on the counter with Harry Gaitatzis led the charge.
The ball was played almost exclusively between the two midfields as Blacktown City began to run out of ideas as to how the would break a stubborn Olympic defence.
Travis Major broke into the box in the 77th minute with a good run but couldn’t keep his shot down as it skewed wide.
Olympic was roared on by an enthusiastic crowd on a winter’s night in Sydney and started to make in-roads near the Blacktown City box.
William Angel tried to link with his fellow Olympic players to try and create something but they lacked the final thrust to worry the reigning premiers.
Olympic coach Grant Lee was positive about his side’s performance.
"They are a good side with quality on the counter but it was a nice effort from the boys. The boys are learning to be mentally tough and not concede something silly,” he said.
"The nice thing is we didn’t concede and could’ve pinched it. Ultimately we didn’t lose tonight.”
Blacktown City coach Mark Crittenden was frustrated with the execution but not the effort of his team.
"We created enough chances to win the game but Hendo came up big for them as we dominated the second half,” he said.
"It was one of those nights for us, we just couldn’t find the net against a good team that gets behind the ball. I thought we deserved more though.”
Match Stats
Sydney Olympic 0
Blacktown City FC 0
Sunday 12th June 2016
Belmore Sports Ground
Sydney Olympic: 1. HENDERSON Paul, 3. TOMELIC Anthony, 5. MADONIS Jason, 6. STAMATELLIS Mitchell, 7. ANGEL William, 10. GAITATZIS Harry, 11. BOUTOUBIA Jacob(FONDYKE ’72), 16. GREEN Oliver(J. GREEN ’72), 33. TSATTALIOS Nikolas(EGGER ’76), 37. MONTFORD Eoin and 90. GASPARI Joshua
Subs not used: 20. CRICKMORE Denver and 26. MORRIS Cohan
Yellow cards: Angel ’20
Blacktown City FC: 1. VEKIC Nenad, 3. SPERANZA Giorgio, 4. SPERANZA Roberto, 6. LEWIS Matthew, 7. MAJOR Travis, 9. GIBBS Joey, 10. EVANS Connor, 14. MALLIA Mitchell, 16. ANTELMI Patrick, 19. CAIRNCROSS Zach and MACURA Sasa
Subs not used: BEUMIE Lewis, GROZDANOVSKI Jonathan and PRENDERGAST Tristan
Yellow cards: Gibbs ’55
-By PlayStation®4 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s reporter Justin Davies
