A second-half strike from Nick Mearns earned the Olympia Warriors a 1-0 win over the Glenorchy Knights at Warrior Park on Friday Night to send them through to the final eight of the Lakoseljac Cup.
It was the third time in as many seasons that these two prestigious clubs have come up against each other in the knockout competition and the Knights were looking to get one back after losing the last two.
And it was the Knights who were to be the more dangerous side early on in the match as the first real chance fell to them through live-wire Declan Brown.
Nicholas Naden played in Sam James down the right with a first-touch pass, the wide-man’s low-cross teased Naden and fell to Brown whose powerful shot from the angle just missed over the bar.
Much of the first-half consisted of Olympia holding onto the ball in their defence but struggling to go forward with it. The Knights continued to use what little of the ball they had, and it was Brown who troubled the defence again.
Brown picked up the ball in the 25th minute and ran at Lucas Hill, just about getting past him to get the shot away which was parried by McDonald. Unfortunately for the Knights Naden just couldn’t quite get to the rebound.
In the 39th minute Knights debutante Diego Gutierrez Chavez stood over a free-kick from 30 yards out. The U.S./Mexico dual-citizen curled a delightful strike up and over the wall but he could only look on in frustration as it cannoned into the crossbar.
Paul Stevens picked up a slice of cheese in stoppage time of the first half when he was adjudged to have fouled Heggie with a high-foot, although it seemed as though Heggie had ducked into it.
With the teams heading into the sheds for half-time Glenorchy would have felt they had the better of the half, but without any real clear-cut chances for either team nil all was probably a fair score-line.
Olympia coach Rob Clarke summoned the dangerous Warren Wadawu from the Olympia bench and into the midfield, and he looked to create a bit more of a link between the Olympia midfield and forwards.
With Olympia finally finding their feet it only took seven minutes of the second half for the Warriors to open the scoring through Nick Mearns.
A searching diagonal ball from Jake Vandermay was misjudged by Knights defender Jade Clay, skimming off the top of his head and finding Mearns. The Warriors Midfielder took it down well with his stomach, took another touch then hammered it low before it deflected off defender Lachlan Hardwick and into the back of the net.
It was all Warriors after the goal as they managed to keep possession and drive a little further forward with it, the Knights on the other hand seemed to have been very deflated by the goal.
Vandermay almost earnt a second assist in the 60th minute when his cross was met well by a jumping Ryan, but Knights Keeper Lachlan Hart made a brilliant save diving to his right to deny the header.
The last real chance of the game came in the 81st minute when Jordan Scott whipped a well-shaped free-kick which found Nkoso’s head on the six-yard box and although he made good contact it was straight at the keeper.
Olympia played a professional last ten minutes to see out the game and earn themselves a spot in the final eight of the Lakoseljac Cup and one step closer to qualifying for the FFA Cup, a huge carrot dangling and the end of this competition.
Rob Clarke admitted that the Knights had got on top for a large part of the first half and praised the way they had gone about it.
“They shut us down well, they worked really hard, it was a typical cup-tie wasn’t it” said the Olympia coach.
“It means a hell of a lot for them, the cup. Realistically they can’t win the league, so this was a really big game for them and it showed.”
Glenorchy Knights coach James Sherman was disappointed that the Knights didn’t take advantage of a good first-half performance, but he was happy with his team.
“I’m very proud of the players, we worked incredibly hard. But we just lacked quality in the final third.”
“We managed to force a good team with some very good players into playing direct balls which really didn’t threaten us at all, so I was extremely proud.”
The two teams meet again in the NPL next Thursday as part of the ANZAC day double-header at North Hobart Oval.