South create record against Olympic

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SOUTH HOBART 6-0 HOBART OLYMPIC
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This was South Hobart’s biggest ever defeat of Hobart Olympic.

The previous biggest winning margin was in 1996, when South Hobart won 5-1.

Olympic defended bravely for the opening half-hour, with Chris Tsimiklis prominent at the centre of the defence, but their wayward passing made it impossible for them to launch any effective attacks.

South Hobart pushed Liam Scott forward on the left and he presented some danger to the visitors.

Julius Ross, who went on to score two goals, also produced some glaring misses, the first as early as the 2nd minute.

South almost hit the front in the 28th minute when Dmitri Nester had to claw a ball out of the goal before it crossed the line following a free-kick from wide on the right by Jim Pennicott and a close-range header.

In the 34th minute, Scott bent a nice shot against the far right-hand post and the rebound was bundled over the line, but the effort was disallowed for off-side.

A minute later, David Abbott was presented with a good opening, but he drove the ball into the side-netting.

Seconds later, South went ahead when Jonathon Ladic floated a free-kick from the left towards the far post and Kostas Kanakaris, the former Olympic striker, nodded the ball across the face of goal for Scott to score.

Lee Mason, one of Olympic’s best performers, had to leave the field after the goal through injury and was replaced by Youssef Mohamad, who was himself to be substituted later in the match.

Kanakaris made it 2-0 in the 38th minute when he raced onto a ball down the left from Scott and beat Chris Tsimiklis before cutting inside and shooting past a hesitant Chris Tsakiris and inside Nester’s right-hand post.

It should have been game over in the 40th minute when Chris Tsakiris inexplicably gave the ball away in midfield to Kanakaris and he slipped it through to Ross, who advanced on goal, only to miscue his shot wide with the goal at his mercy.

The second half was one-way traffic as Julius Ross added South’s third in the 55th minute with a rocket into the roof of the net from Kanakaris’s cross.

Ladic made it 4-0 from another Kanakaris cross after good initial work down the left by Abbott, but Ross then missed another sitter after being set up by Abbott.

Ross did add his second, and South’s fifth, 8 minutes from the end following Shae Hickey’s dangerous chip to the far post. Nester could only palm the ball down to Ross’s feet, and the striker scored into an empty net.

In the 78th minute, Ladic cut the ball back from the right and Abbott laid it into the path of Heerey, but he blazed wildly over the bar.

With two minutes remaining, Hickey put Abbott through and he nut-megged goalkeeper Nester for South’s sixth.

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• South Hobart coach, Ken Morton, said:

“Well, happy in the end. A little bit of relief.

“I don’t know when the first goal came, but we battled away and had some chances in the 6-yard box and missed them, so I thought it was going to be another one of those days.

“But, we got a fullback forward into the 6-yard box and he scored and after that we played some good football and got in behind them.

“There were some good crosses today and we got two or three people in the box, which we hadn’t been doing, so that was quite pleasing.

• Hobart Olympic coach, Farrell Shaw, said:

“They were always going to win this game.

“They had a lot of pressure in the first half and we did a lot of defending in the first half and it was quite pleasing to see that we defended quite well.

“Ten minutes before the first half ended, they got two easy goals.

“In the second half, again, we started off really well and we had another ten minutes of down play and they scored two and from then it was all over.

“It’s disappointing for the lads. Some of the lads really out in there, but, it’s frustrating when you get a team that’s there to be taken and you don’t take them.”
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South Hobart: Moncur - Pennicott, Ludford, Heerey (Bladel 74), Scott - Abbott, Ladic, Hickey, Cooper - Kanakaris, Ross (Substitutes not used: Upton, Hill, Eaves)

Goals: Scott 35, Kanakaris 38, Ross 55, Ladic 56, Ross 82, Abbott 88

Hobart Olympic: Nester - Lebski, Tsimiklis, C Tsakiris, Kaproulias (E Tsakris 70) - Saric, Mason [(Mohamad 36) Banks 83], Richardson, Larzabal - Bulis, Kunwar (Substitute not used: Plomaritis)

Booked: Larzabal 51

Att: 113

Ref: C Phillips