Eagles survive Olympia blitz

Photos (Top to Bottom): Olympia's Kosta Grillas passes as Eagles' Jacob Clamp moves in; Eagles' Jamie Vernon gets a cross in despite the attentions of Youssef Mohamad (right); Eagles warm up as the officials enter the playing arena; Injured Eagles captain Chris Wass walks behind replacement captain Nathan Pitchford's goal; The injured Wass tries a kick-about as the officials come onto the pitch; Wass can't stay away from the action as he takes a ball to the Eagles bench as the officials meet the captains; Referee Kim Barker tosses the coin; Andrew Clark gets the ball away ahead of Olympia's Alex Nandan; Eagles' Ben Whitehall and Olympia's Mark Wakefield appear to be playing basketball beyond the view of referee Kim Barker; Eagles' Jamie Vernon tries to elude Olympia's Fletcher Tracy; Eagles' Ben Whitehall finds a way past Mark Wakefield; The Eagles bench, while suspended Olympia coach Chris Hey is missing from the Olympia bench; Olympia's Lee Mason on his way to goal; Eagles' Jamie Vernon gets tangled up with Olympia keeper Dmitri Nester, who has the ball [PlessPix]

Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League (Clare Street, Saturday, 22 May 2010)

_________________________________________________

New Town Eagles 1 (A McKeown 12)

Olympia Warriors 1 (K Grillas 46)

HT: 1-0 Att: 70 Ref: K Barker

New Town Eagles: Pitchford - Clark, Louden, Clamp, Anderson - Whitehall, Hudson (Quan 65), Kent (Fennell 76), Vernon (Menzie 61) - Leszczynski, McKeown [Substitute not used: Minty] [Coach: George Krambousanos]

Olympia Warriors: Nester - Mohamad, Richardson, Hedge, Wakefield - Phillips (Lebski 76), Mason, Tracy, Nandan - Cronk (Percy 54), Grillas [Substitutes not used: McCallum, Tsimiklis] [Coach: Chris Hey]

___________________________________________________

Olympia Warriors got their third point of the season with this 1-1 draw away to New Town Eagles, but they should have taken all three points.

They hit the woodwork three times and Adam Hedge should have scored when presented with an open goal in the second half.

Fletcher Tracy also had a good chance from inside the box, but he chose to pass rather than shoot.

Olympia were fortunate to equalise before a minute had elapsed at the start of the second half. An error by Eagles’ captain and goalkeeper Nathan Pitchford allowed Kosta Grillas to nip in and equalise. But, full credit to the Olympia striker as it was his alertness that gave him the goal after Pitchford had inexplicably fumbled Brady Cronk's shot.

Adam McKeown, almost inevitably, netted for Eagles. In the 12th minute, he collected the ball from Alex Leszcznski’s cut-back from the left and volleyed past Dmitri Nester from the edge of the box. It made him the equal leading scorer in the league with 9 goals.

For Olympia, new signing from Clarence United, Alex Nandan, struck the post in the first half, while substitute Aaron Percy hit the bar late in the match. Lee Mason also hit the underside of the bar, but the ball bounced back into play and was cleared by Andrew Clark.

Leszczynski thought he had a goal late in the match when he hit the rebound at goal after Nester had turned a McKeown header against a post, but Nester got to it and deflected it onto team-mate Mason and then out of play. Nester was adamant that the ball had not crossed the line, while the Eagles players claimed it had. It is the officials who ultimately determine such things and they said play on.

Eagles remain sixth, while Olympia prop up the rest of the teams from the bottom rung of the ladder.

____________________________________________________

· New Town Eagles coach, George Krambousanos, said:

“I think we could have lost the game today, but I don’t think many people realise that that last shot by Alex [Leszczynski] was a goal. It was about three feet over the line. That’s what all the players said.

“Anyway, that’s bad luck and we’ll carry that.

“They had their chances. They had more chances than we did actually.

“We scored a beautiful goal. But, we’ve still got three players to come into the team and, at the moment, I think our defence was a little bit shaky, and also our forward line didn’t do much and our midfield was a little bit slow.

“We’ve got a bit of homework to do again. I’m disappointed.

“Congratulations to Olympia. I hope they can do a little bit more than that against other opponents.

“I’m a little bit sad.”

· Olympia Warriors coach, Chris Hey, said:

“It was a fantastic effort. They [Olympia] played well and dominated today.

“They [Olympia] deserved a better result than they got. They trained well this week.

“There were two hard nights of training and the balance was there.

“At half-time we made a few adjustments and it seemed to work. The two young fellows out wide, Ben Phillips and Alex Nandan, who was playing his first game for the club, were superb today.

“It was another point. We’ve got three now. There were a lot of positives out there today, so it was a fantastic effort.”