Newcastle Olympic cruised past Kahibah FC in round 4 of the 2026 Northern NSW NPL competition after recording victories by 2-1 in Reserve Grade and 2-0 in First Grade!
Newcastle Olympic Reserve Grade faced newly promoted Kahibah FC with a 3-4-3 formation and the 10-1 shots on goal in favour of Olympic, by the end of the first half, is a good indicator of how the game was played. Olympic dominated play but their poor finishing in front of goal kept the scoreline at 2-1.
Proceedings began with a well curled shot by Wil Harvey from outside the box in the 15th minute! Olympic dominated play in defence and midfield and Kahibah countered this with physical play and numbers in defence!
During the execution of one of the many fouls won by Olympic, Wil Harvey sent a careless pass across the face of the Olympic defence, only to see it intercepted by Joe Cutfield and buried into the back of the net! This was the first goal conceded by Olympic in the new season!
Steven Theacos restored Olympics’ lead four minutes later through a header from a well taken corner and the 2-1 lead was taken in at half time.
The second half was similar in terms of domination of play but the opportunities in front of goal were fewer for both teams. Kahibah had one shot on goal all game to Olympics’ total of 12, of which only 5 were on target!
Kahibah did not threaten Olympic during the match but were able to contain them and prevent them from making the result a formality until the very end. Olympic dominated all over the field yet again but showed their weakness in finishing, once again.
Despite this, they recorded their 3rd victory in three matches and occupy 2nd spot on the table with a game in hand.
Newcastle Olympic First Grade went into this game against an opponent who had defeated Adamstown Rosebud away and drew against the almighty Edgeworth Eagles! Despite this, Olympic were able to score early through an unchallenged header by Marcus Duncan!
Throughout the half Olympic were too strong and were able to control the game. Although they were unable to add to the score, they had 11 shots on goal of which 8 were on target to Kahibah’s 7 of which only 2 were on target!
The second half followed a similar pattern with Olympic controlling the game but not being able to put it out of reach until the 88th minute when Kyle Bradbery took advantage of a stretched Kahibah defence and made it 2-0 with a well curled shot.
The end of the game had Olympic with a total of 23 shots on the Kahibah goal compared to 14 of the local team. This was Olympics’ second win of the season and a great confidence booster for the remainder of the season.
Source: Tom Tsamouras
George Tsamouras Football Journey 