Ryan double propels Olympia to top of NPL standings

(NPL Tasmania, Warrior Park, Friday, 12 July 2019)

Olympia Warriors 2 (J Ryan 44, 62)

Glenorchy Knights 1 (D Brown 4)

HT:  1-1   Att:  110   Ref:  B Kopra

Olympia warriors:  McDonald  -  Thompson (Vandermey 89), Hill, Stevens, Kurtz  -  Mearns, Scott, Ladic (Wadawu 81)  -  Yost (Ortmann 65), Ryan, Cook  (Subs not used:  Hills, D Randall)

Glenorchy Knights:  Hart  -  Toghill, Clay, Harrison, Warrener  -  James (Backhouse 85), Gutierrez-Chavez, Naden  -  Marney (Hallard 75), Leszczynski, Declan Brown  (Subs not used:  Nester, J Sherman, Ursic)

Olympia Warriors went to the top of the NPL Tasmania standings, even if only temporarily, with this 2-1 win at home at Warrior Park against seventh-placed Glenorchy Knights.

The Knights have hit the wall and this was their sixth straight league loss.

Knights started well enough and hit the front after just 4 minutes.  Declan Brown raced onto a suicidal back-pass and rounded keeper Kyle McDonald and stroked the ball home.

Knights’ Nick Naden was a livewire, prompting and feeding his team-mates with passes, but all to no avail.  Near the end of the opening half, it was Naden who forced a superb save from McDonald.  In the second half, he also brought out the best in McDonald with a goal attempt.

It took Olympia almost until half-time to equalise.  Bay Kurtz sent over a cross from deep on the left and Jack Ryan controlled it beautifully and, shrugging off Sam James, beat Lachlan Hart.

The second half opened with Naden being denied virtually three times in the space of a few seconds as Knights sought the lead again.

In the 54^th minute, Aaron Marney brought the best out of McDonald, who dived full stretch to turn the ball wide of the far top left-hand corner.

It was Olympia who took the lead when, in the 62^nd minute, Ryan fired home from the edge of the box, the ball beating Hart and lodging inside the bottom left-hand corner.

Mark Ortmann headed against a post as Olympia kept up the pressure, while Nick Mearns was denied by a fine save from Hart.

McDonald again showed his class 15 minutes from the end when he made an excellent save from an Alex Leszczynski header.

In the end, Knights ran out of time and Olympia were able to celebrate the league leadership.