Weakened Warriors lose narrowly to visiting Victorians

Photo:  Olympia's Joel Sammut is nudged by Keilor's Brandon Scerri [PlessPix]

(Pre-season Friendly, Warrior Park, Saturday, 9 February 2019)

Olympia Warriors 0

Keilor Park 1 (Kazuki 57’)

HT:  0-0   Att:  70   Ref:  J McInerney

Olympia Warriors:  McDonald  -  Baddily, Curtis, Vandermey, Leaman  -  Hills, Thompson, Scott, Sammut  -  Allan, N’Koso  (Subs:  Bilal, Hardwick, Mulungulu, Yost, Cummins)

Keilor Park:  Spiteri  -  Scerri, Johnston, Campelj, Grech  -  Barresi, Pilcher, De Fazio, Sirgiovanni  -  Cunnison, Kazuki  (Subs:  Grigg, Prosia, Hillary-Jenkins, Jozeljic, Furlong)

This was the second game in two days for Keilor Park, who came to Hobart as part of their pre-season program.

On Friday night they beat Glenorchy Knights 3-0 at KGV Park, while today they downed Olympia Warriors 1-0.

Photo:  Olympia's Joffrey N'Koso stretches for the ball while under pressure from Keilor's James Johnston [PlessPix]

The artificial pitch posed no problems for the visitors and they produced a strong, close-passing game that had Olympia working hard to contain them.

James Johnston was excellent at the heart of the Keilor defence, while Okada Kazuki was in top form in midfeld and when he pushed forward.

Indeed, it was Kazuki who scored the solitary goal of the game 12 minutes after the break.

Keilor attacked down the right and a low cross from Adrian Barresi was turned into the net from close range by Kazuki, who had eluded his marker.

Barresi had gone close in the first half when his low drive drifted just wide of the left-hand post.

 Photo: Olympia's Joel Sammut controls the ball with his chest [PlessPix]

Olympia, who were without the injured centre-forward Jack Ryan, amongst others, had a couple of half-chances in the first half.  Jake Thompson shot wide from range, and Jordan Scott’s half-volley from range also flew just wide.

Keilor brought on Goran Jozeljic for the second half and he forced a superb save from Olympia keeper Kyle McDonald, but the visitors were unable to add a second goal against the home team, who were considerably under-strength.

Joffrey N’Koso produced an exciting and polished display for Olympia, who were also without Nick Mearns, Warren Wadawu, Lucas Hill and Paul Stevens.

 Photo:  Olympia's Sam Hills heads the ball [PlessPix]

Olympia Warriors coach, Rob Clarke, said:

“I was very happy.  It was a good run-out, especially for some of the people that have missed training, like Joel Sammut on the wing.  He’s been away and he’s had a little injury, an infected foot, and it was a good 70 minutes for him.  That was good.  He’s normally a fullback but played on the wing.

“A lot of the young boys did really well.  I was very pleased with Lutfi Baddiley at the back.  He was very good.  I was very happy.

“It was one of those weekends  -  other clubs are the same  -  where everyone’s gone to this ‘party in the paddock’ thing in Launceston, so we’ve got three or four away there.  We’ve got a wedding, we’ve got work, so in the end I’m glad it wasn’t embarrassing to invite them to come to us and we put on a decent performance.

“I’m very happy with what we did.”

Photo:  Keilor coach Paul Falzon was happy with the Tasmanian visit [PlessPix]

Keilor Park coach, Paul Falzon, said:

“I was very happy and pleased with the way we went about it.  We’ve had two tough games in two days and we were more than happy with that game.

“We took a while to adjust to the pace, but once we got on the ball we did very well.

“I was very happy with all the players.  They all put a good shift in.  We can go home now and relax and keep our pre-season campaign going.”

 Photo:  Olympia's Jake Thompson shields the ball [PlessPix]

Photo: Olympia's Austin Yost pursues an opponent in midfield [PlessPix]

Photo:  Keilor's Okada Kazuki gets away from Olympia's Sam Hills [PlessPix]