Relentless Sydney Olympic punish Manly United FC

Sydney Olympic returned to the top five of the IGA National Premier Leagues NSW Mens 1 competition with a dominant 5-1 victory over Manly United FC at Belmore Sports Ground on Sunday in front of a healthy crowd at a lovely day for football.

Led by captain Phil Makrys the Blues scored three first-half goals before two late goals in the second stanza against a disappointing Manly United.

Sydney Olympic showed their intent straight from the kick off with Phil Makrys sending a through ball to Luke Grima but the former Parramatta Eagles striker could only shoot straight at Manly goalkeeper Dylan Mitchell.

Both teams started testing each other in the middle of the park with Manly United next to create a chance in the 9’ minute. After Ibrahim Haydar committed a foul out wide on the right, Manly’s free-kick went right across the face of goal and out for a goal kick.

Manly were scrambling in defence in the 14’ minute when Josh Lawson was ruled to have passed the ball back to Mitchell in goal, gifting Olympic an indirect free-kick on the six-yard line. Luckily for the away side Mitchell deflected the ball out for a corner.

Minutes later Brett Studman got up well from a corner only to direct his header over the crossbar.

The pressure finally cracked the Manly United defence in the 19’ minute when Phil Makrys’ shot was deflected into the goal to give Olympic a 1-0 lead.

Olympic continued their relentless display after the goal forcing Manly to remain in their half for large spells.

Colin Iley tried to get his side back into the game in the 30’ minute, feeding a lovely through ball to Brendan Cholakian on the right whose low cross was easily cleared by the Olympic defence.

3’ minutes later, Scott Balderson saw his free-kick go just wide of the mark as Manly started pressing.

Manly’s hard work was undone in the 38’ minute when Roberto Hamad brought down Kingley Williams in the box leaving the referee no choice but to point to the spot. Makrys stepped up, sending Mitchell the wrong way to make it 2-0.

Olympic had Manly on the ropes and they made it 3-0 in the 41’ minute. After Manly United cleared from a corner, Williams sent a long through ball with Elsid Barkhousir heading the ball past the out coming Mitchell and into the net.

United came out from the break hungry and hit straight back in the 47’ minute. William Angel fouled Cholakian in the box with the referee awarding Manly a penalty as Matthew Sim struck it into the bottom left corner to make it 3-1.

The strong start to the second-half continued a minute later when Cholakian got on the end of a deep cross only to send his header wide.

Olympic made another in-road into the Manly box in the 49’ minute after Marton Vass sent Angel through on the left with his impending cross cleared.

Angel kept United on the back foot and in the 56’ minute made a great run down the left before crossing for Williams to head over.

United’s attack was not giving up as Scott Balderson had two shots go close minutes later.

The game slowed down in the middle of the second half but Barkhousir almost doubled his tally in the 76’ minute with a curling effort from 20-yards out going just over the bar.

Barkhousir didn’t make a mistake with his next chance in the 82’ minute, getting on the end of a through ball and putting it past the oncoming Mitchell making it 4-1 with 8’ minutes remaining.

The Blues had goalkeeper Paul Henderson to thank minutes later after saving two shots from point-blank range.

But in the last minute of play Makrys played a lovely one-two with Barkhousir before making a darting run and cutting the ball back from the byline to the free Gauthier who buried it in ending the game 5-1.

Following the match Sydney Olympic head coach Peter Tsekenis said he was pleased with his side’s performance after poor displays in recent weeks:

“I was looking for a bit desperation and wanted to see guys who wanted to win,’’ Tsekenis said.

“We had a game plan and the boys followed it very well and forced things to happen.

“Things haven’t been going our way and we haven’t deserved it but this time we made sure that we made things happen, we put the effort in that we require and that is what we are looking for every week.’’

In the opposition change room Manly United FC coach Craig Midgley was disappointed in his team:

“I think (Sydney Olympic) won every second ball and I thought they bullied us,’’ he said.

“At times I thought it was men against boys out there and it is a big learning curve for us.

“It is alright having young boys in the team but when you come across a team who plays direct like today, who are physical, you have to match them.’’

Match Stats

Sydney Olympic 5 (Phil Makrys 19’, 38’, Elsid Barkousir 41’, 82’, Amaury Gauthier 89’)

Manly United 1 (Matthew Sim 47’)

Sunday 28th of April, 2013

Belmore Sports Ground

Referee: Christopher Young

Assistant Referees: Alex Long and Thomas Lee

Fourth Official: Lachlan Daniel

Sydney Olympic: 1.Paul Henderson; 14.Petar Markovic, 7.Phil Makrys (C), 4.Ibrahim Haydar, 11.William Angel (22.Amaury Gauthier 68’), 16.Elsid Barkhousir, 12.Troy Danaskos, 8.Kingsley Williams, 6.Marton Vass (24.Brendan Hooper 72’), 9.Luke Grima (15.Zak Elrich 61’), 3.Brett Studman

Substitutes Not Used: Anthony Bouzanis, 19.Chris Godoy Bascur

Yellow Cards: Markovic 51’,

Red Cards: Nil

Manly United FC: 1.Dylan Mitchell; 7.Scott Balderson, 14.David Cain, 12.Brendan Cholakian, 2.Leigh Egger (32.Michael McGinley 52’), 4.Graeme Forbes, 6.Daniel Grant (16.Josh Ward 50’), 3.Roberto Hamad, 10.Colin Iley, 5.Josh Lawson, 11.Matthew Sim

Substitutes Not Used: 20.Tonu Liiband, 30.Jack Green, 37.Dylan Whitdock

Yellow Cards: Mitchell 15’, Grant 36’, Forbes 44’, Cain 58

Red Cards: Nil

Player Ratings:

3 – Phil Makrys (SO)

2 – Elsid Barkhousir (SO)

1 – William Angel (SO)

-By Chris Georges