Marconi have all but kissed goodbye to their Premiership ambitions after allowing Sydney Olympic to stage a Houdini act in their 1-1 draw at Marconi Stadium on Saturday night. Leading 1-0 deep into injury time, some poor defending by the Stallions allowed Josh Sama to bob up at the back post and put away a cross from Tarek Elrich to keep their finals hopes alive.
“We blew our chance for the Minor Premiership tonight,†said Brown. “This was a classic example of what happens when a side doesn’t take its chances. We had three or four clear one on one chances and we didn’t take one.â€
After a frantic opening twenty minutes the Stallions were able to translate their first half dominance into a goal when skipper Luke Casserly nodded home a corner from Tony Faria surrounded by a sea of Olympic defenders. Some excellent goalkeeping from Cem Akilli kept the scoreline at 1-0 for all but the last ten seconds of the game as Marconi cut loose early in the second stanza. Faria the main offender in missing two clear cut chances while Simon Catanzaro missed a third as Olympic staged a late revival for the final twenty minutes.
Testing Andrew Crews on a handful of occassions, Olympic got their reward when Sama sent a 94th minute header trickling over the line and in at the back post with just seconds remaining.
“We are still a good chance for the finals and the boys delivered tonight,†said Olympic coach Manny Spanoudakis. “Marconi is never an easy place to get a result and I am very happy to take a draw which keeps up the pressure on the teams around us.â€
Spanoudakis confirming that utility Damon Collina will miss the remainder of the season after undergoing knee surgery on Monday.
MARCONI STALLIONS: Andrew Crews, Paul Cotte, Vuko Tomasevic, Michael Cunico, Luke Casserly, Simon Catanzaro, Matthew Langdon, Antonio Faria, Adam D’Apuzzo, Naoki Imaya, John Buonovoglia; Coach Brian Brown.
SYDNEY OLYMPIC: Cem Akilli, Shane Lyons, Peter McPherson, Nick Bosevski (Ante Alilovic), Anthony Doumanis, Matthew Gordon (Goran Popovski), George Lagoudakis (Lewis Gikas), Kosta Lagoudakis, Josh Sama, Tarek Elrich, Mark Bridge; Coach: Manny Spanoudakis.
CAUTIONS: D’Apuzzo (MS), Cunico (MS)
REFEREE: Matthew Breeze
ASSISTANT REFEREES: Sarah Ho and Jose Da Silva
FOURTH OFFICIAL: Adam Susz
OLYMPIC STAGE DRAMATIC FIGHTBACK TO DRAW WITH STALLIONS
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