Newcastle Olympic take on Charlestown Azzurri in Round 13 of the 2026 Northern NSW NPL competition.
Reserve Grade will be looking to record their 9th win of the season in order to reclaim 1st position on the points Table while First Grade their 4th win of the season in an attempt to move away from the relegation zone.
After winning seven games and drawing one from eight matches, Newcastle Olympic Reserve Grade experienced a horror three weeks in which they sustained a 1-0 defeat by Edgeworth Eagles, a 2-1 defeat by Valentine FC and a 4-3 defeat at the hands of Lambton Jaffas!
All this came to an end last week with a 3-1 home victory over Weston Bears in a match which they had to work hard to win. They sit in 2nd spot two points behind Valentine FC!
Charlestown Azzurri sit in 11th position on the table on 3 wins, 5 defeats and 3 draws. In the second-round fixture Olympic had no problem defeating Azzurri by 3-0 and should be favourites to collect the 3 points at Darling St Oval on Saturday. Kick off is scheduled for 12:00am.
Newcastle Olympic First Grade have won once in their last eight outings and sit 3 points off bottom of the table! Although there are 10 games remaining they are in desperate need of points to move away from the bottom end of the points table!
They have won a total of three games all season and one of those was a 2-1 win over Azzurri at Lisle Carr Oval. Azzurri have won one game more but sit on the same points but with a game in hand.
They are a team which is either hot or cold. On their day they can beat the league leaders away (4-2 over Weston) and on a bad day they can lose at home to the bottom team of the league (1-2 by Valentine). This indifference in form was the cause of their coach James Pascoe to walk away from the club and focus on his family.
Hopefully Azzurri can be in the lesser mood on Saturday and Olympic can secure 3 points. Kick off is scheduled for 2:00am but a lot will depend on the amount of rain between now and Saturday.
Source: Tom Tsamouras
George Tsamouras Football Journey 