Newcastle Olympic secured a win and a draw from the midweek wash out fixture from Round 10 against New Lambton FC at Darling St Oval. Reserve Grade notched up another routine win, their 9th consecutive, while First Grade struggled to secure a 2-2 draw and were reduced to 9 players by the end of the match!
On a cold Wednesday night at Darling St Oval, Reserve Grade won 2-0 in a match which lacked the fluency, sharpness and domination of previous games. In part this can be attributed to the fact that it was played at the end of a workday as well as being only the second competitive match in 46 days! In these matches, the extraction of maximum points is what matters. Match fitness and fluency will return as the team returns to playing regular games each week.
Apart from this, New Lambton’s tactics to overload their midfield and close down Olympic’s habit of playing out from the right and the left prevented the home side from dominating play and putting pressure on the opposition. While this worked, especially in the first half, New Lambton had only one shot on target throughout the entire match!
Sustained pressure by Olympic in the opening minutes of the second half through quick one touch passing and pressing when without the ball, yielded 2 goals in the three minutes! Both goals by Charlie Halls in the 47th and River Petersen in the 48th were the result of attacking from the right and quickly switching play to the left where New Lambton were stretched for numbers!
With the two goal cushion, the midfield trio of Petersen, Steinerts and Tsamouras began to enjoy more space and time on the ball enabling Olympic to be in control of play and threatening on occasions with counter attacking moves.
The win is the 9th consecutive victory and places Newcastle Olympic 8 points clear in first spot on the Reserve Grade points table.
First Grade salvaged a 2-2 draw from a team which had only 2 points to it’s credit all season! They finished the game with 9 players following two red cards to Nathan Toby and Jed Hornery!
Olympic lacked the intensity and sharpness from previous games but were in control of possession and didn’t look like they were going to be threatened by a New Lambton side occupying last position on the points table. What Olympic lacked was finishing and goal scoring opportunities in attack!
During an attacking move on the left by New Lambton, a poor clearance by Zac Thomas in the 22nd minute resulted in the ball being charged down and from a point blank position, Thomas O’Connor fired the ball into the back of the Olympic net! Less than 10 minutes later, a cross from the left and a glancing header to the far post by Zac Thomas, and the score was 1-1.
As players began to look towards the referee for the half time whistle a forward move from New Lambton found Kanata Furutani with the ball between the half-way line and the 18 yard box. The youngster unleashed a long range shot which went over the outstretched arms of the Olympic keeper and dipped underneath the cross bar for an incredible 2-1 score line at the break!
The New Lambton lead was short lived as within a minute from the start of the second half Nathan Toby tapped in a cross from the left to bring the score to 2-2! Olympic continued to control the game but they also failed to crack open the defense of a team determined not to lose.
In the 80th minute the referee sought the advice from the fourth official and sent off Nathan Toby with a straight red card. In the 90th minute it was the turn of Jed Hornery who was sent off with a second yellow card! Despite every effort and playing with two players short, Olympic were unable to score and allowed New Lambton to celebrate their third point of the season!
Source: Tom Tsamouras
George Tsamouras Football Journey 