The Glenorchy Knights snapped a streak of eight years without a win over the Olympia Warriors to claim a huge 3-1 win at KGV to kick start their NPL season and consign Olympia to an 0-2 start. New signing and former Warrior Joffrey Nkoso immediately haunted his former side, scoring one goal and assisting another as the Knights won a hotly contested clash at KGV.
The Warriors had not lost in their past 17 clashes with the Knights and had won 16 of them, tracing all the way back to the 2012 Southern Premier League season, but they knew they were in for a stern test right out of the gates of this one.
Tom Young got the scoring under way in the 10th minute when Alex Bellini played in a beautiful through ball, which Young slotted home to make it 1-0 though there was more than a hint of offside about it.
The Warriors poor start was compounded when Ben Hamlett had a penalty saved by Lachlan Hart, diving strongly to his left. The Warriors were starting to grow into the game however and starting to create some chances as they sought a way back into the match.
A pair of new Knights signings then combined as Alex Walter doubled the lead on the stroke of half time with a drilled finish after some nice play from Joffrey Nkoso in the lead up.
Nkoso should've had a penalty that would have extended the lead further, when he was sent tumbling in the box, but he would still have the last laugh.
The former Warrior drove the dagger into his former side as he secured his sides third goal with a low effort from range that slipped through Warriors keeper, Elliot Hoystead's hands.
Jack Ryan pulled a goal back in the 78th minute with an absolute bullet of a header, finishing off Adam Gorrie's cross from the right but the contest was all but over by this stage, despite a strong finish to the game from the visitors.
Knights coach James Sherman was pleased with the performance his side produced but said there was still areas to work on.
"There is plenty for us to work on from today’s performance, but it was a convincing display. Considering we hadn't beaten them since 2012, it was a big step forwards."
We looked dangerous but at the same time, we had a bit of fortune too but you need that in the big games sometimes.”
He said he was happy with last week's performance and that this week his side have proved more clinical.
"I thought we were pretty convincing last week too, to be honest. You look at the goals from last week hopefully that's not going to happen often and we had 8 chances inside the six yard box. "
Andrew Brown maintained an upbeat mentality post game stressing that he still believed in his playing group.
"The message is that we believe in them, we don't think we've had the rub of the green or the luck and that it will turn if we keep persisting."
“We believe in the players and we believe in the football we’re playing, we’re just not getting the results that we will eventually,”
“Everyone is going to have their day in the sun and everyone is going to have their day in the rain. We’ve had a couple of bad days in the last week and I believe that when the sun comes out, we’ve got our football karma out of the way and we’ll come home with a wet sail.”
https://youtu.be/1ZjPMRosL_g