Photos (Top to Bottom): Adam McKeown puts Eagles ahead with a shot from the edge of the box; Ben Whitehall congratulates McKeown on his goal; Olympia's Fletcher Tracy gets in a header ahead of Eagles' Andrew Clark as Jacob Clamp and Kosta Grillas look on; Olympia's Adam Hedge (right) about to tackle New Town Eagles' Ben Whitehall [PlessPix]
Olympia Warriors, languishing in last place on the Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League ladder, were desperately unlucky not to beat sixth-placed New Town Eagles away at Clare Street on Saturday.
Olympia hit the Eagles woodwork three times and also missed a couple of open goals as they fought to secure their first win of the season.
It is the club’s 50th anniversary this season and they have just three points from 10 outings.
They are staring relegation in the face and that would hardly be a cause for celebration. They have already postponed their anniversary dinner until March next year.
Olympia almost took the lead in the 10th minute when a cross from deep on the right was met by new signing Alex Nandan at the far post, but his shot hit the far upright.
Two minutes later, Eagles hit the front after a quick counter-attack. Alex Leszczynski crossed from the byline on the left and prolific scorer Adam McKeown rifled the ball home from the edge of the box.
The goal took McKeown’s tally to nine and he is now the equal top marksman in the competition, together with Ben Crosswell of Tilford Zebras and Jonathon Lo of South Hobart.
The visitors were level 50 seconds into the second half. Ben Phillips crossed low from the right and, when Eagles goalkeeper and captain Nathan Pitchford fumbled the ball, Kosta Grillas was on hand to prod it home.
In the 69th minute, substitute Aaron Percy rattled the Eagles crossbar with a mighty shot, while two minutes later, Olympia’s Adam Hedge missed an open goal, sending his shot from Grillas’s left-wing cross over the bar.
Lee Mason almost gave Olympia the lead shortly after when he broke through the Eagles rearguard and got in a strike at goal, but the ball hit the underside of the bar and bounced down and back into play, where it was headed clear by defender Andrew Clark.
Eagles then rallied and almost grabbed a late winner. Olympia goalkeeper Dmitri Nester did well to turn a McKeown header against the bar. The ball rebounded to Alex Leszczynski, whose follow-up shot was deflected by Nester against the chest of team-mate Mason and out of play.
Eagles claimed the ball had crossed the line, but referee Kim Barker waved play on.
Leszczynski also sent a powerful shot just wide of the angle of crossbar and post, but neither side could break the deadlock and had to be content with a share of the points.
Third-ranked Tilford Zebras drew level on 17 points with second-placed Glenorchy Knights when they beat fourth-ranked Kingborough Lions United 4-2 away at Lightwood Park.
Jayden Welch fired Zebras in front in the 13th minute, but Greg Freeman levelled for the Lions within a minute.
Ricky Self restored the visitors’ advantage on the half-hour, but Freeman struck again in the 42nd minute to make it 2-2 at the interval.
Two goals by Dwayne Walsh, in the 53rd and 70th minutes, gave Zebras the three points.
In the Saturday evening match, fifth-placed Clarence United scored a comfortable 5-0 win over second-last Taroona at home at Wentworth Park.
Luke Cripps headed home Mattias Toghill’s corner in the 8th minute to put Clarence in front, while Sam McIntyre added the second in the 34th minute when the Taroona keeper, Richard Nettlefold, could only parry a Cripps shot.
Three goals in seven minutes completed the victory. Substitute Ben Hamlett set up McIntyre for his second and Clarence’s third in the 73rd minute, while Ben Parker nodded home Grant Malcolm’s free-kick in the 75th minute to make it 4-0.
Hamlett completed the scoring in the 79th minute with a left-foot drive into the corner of the net.
17 comments:
Eagles really unlucky not to get win. Ball was cleared from inside the goal line. Eagles should have won the game. Olympia really only had 2 clear cut chances and eagles were the much much better team all day. Olympia's only goal was simply a Pitchford error.
Don't know what game you were watching. Olympia dominated the game. Even Krambo admitted Olympia outplayed eagles and deserved to win the game.
And no,the ball did not cross the line. It was eagles who only had two real chances.
wow..granted we have been played off the park on many occasions...so when you hit the bar 3 times and miss from 6 yrds out these dont count as chances...some credit when credits due would be nice.
egos at play? Just remember this is the third time Olympia have drawn with Eagles in 2010.
Playing the older players is not the answer. Too slow. Why was Lebski brought on in a wide attacking role when Olympia needed penetration? Nandan added something extra on the left - good pick up.
The ball did clearly cross the line, however incapable assistants letting the game down again. Assistant was not level with the goal line as he should have been!
the ball was clearly over the line when olympia keeper was on the ground and alex kicked it into him. easy to see that from the car park!!!!!
Robert Lebski..was on because he was fresh and looking at the bench..we had two players who had played practically full games in the reserves...and BP had a wonderful game on the right and Alex a super game on the left...we realised Mark Wakfield who was superb at right/left full back was blowing very hard and Eagles had just subbed a wide midfielder on so we I decided to protect this area and Lebski did get forward on two occasions in his 15 minute stint.
It is funny how you can say that the linesman was not level and you clearly saw the ball had crossed the line when you could not have been level either. The keeper was over the line but extended his arm forward to stop the ball crossing the line. Get over it.
Alex is a great pick up for Olympic, didnt fit in at clarence, there's no I in Clarence.
haha at anonymous 2.41. he didn't move his arms
it was a see-sawing game really...olympia on top for first 10mins hten eagles for next 35.... olympic for first 30mins of second half then eagles for last 15.....both teams unlucky olympic with hitting the crossbar and eagles getting screwed by officials again...olympics goal was given to them pretty much however due to pitchy's error so them missing an open goal might have been karma..... mckeown seems to like playing olympic, scored all the goals against them in their two premier league fixtures...
surely if Nanadan is getting a senior birth at Olympia and actually improving that team's performance then that is a bonus for the League for Olympia and for Alex rather than him playing U19s at Clarence. Olympia has picked up Nandan and Undy for Tsakiris and Kunwar that's not a bad swap.
Anon 24/5 5.18PM. U r clearly a eagles supporter or player and trying to make a pathetic performance look remotely defendable. Eagles played long balls all day and were played off the park by a team with three points. I didn't see Pitchford roll the ball out to his fullbacks once. How can we expect young kids to play football and then bring them along to watch the crap that Eagles cough up each week. Unfortunately it can be effective so they'll keep doing it.
you must be watching through that one blue eye then! and missed the rollouts to defenders and throws to midfielders feet on half way.
crap eagles cough up? by my recollection they are 7 points ahead of olympic....so they must be doing alot more than olympic are..... sure eagles didnt have a good game but they were no where near played off the park...
Whooooo hoooooooo a whole 7 points ahead of the worst team in the land!!! Well done Eagles!!! LOL LOL LOL
anon 10:16, yeah not a bad swap until next year when olympic are relegated. where will alex go then?? tsakiris and kunwar can play, at least, at premier league reserve level in the second best side in that comp. undy and nandan couldnt. yeah was a good swap.
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