By Michael Djiordjieski

Second-half strikes from Michael John and Robbie Cattanach sealed a 3-1 win for Canberra Olympic over Tuggeranong United at Greenway on Sunday.

The win means Tuggeranong fall to their first defeat of the season, while Olympic moved up to second in the competition table.

A rainy afternoon included big thunderstorms preceding the match, and it got underway slowly in the far from ideal conditions.

The home side opened the scoring in the 16^th minute through Mate Barisic, who converted Aisosa Ihegie’s through ball to score his second goal in his second league game for Tuggeranong.

Olympic did not let that goal dull their mood though and responded in astonishing fashion two minutes later as Daniel Colbertaldo struck a thunderbolt into the top corner to produce an early frontrunner for goal of the season.

Both sides had opportunities to take the lead with the scores locked at 1-1, but it would remain that way heading into half time.

As the rain started to slowly fade away, sunshine threated to break through at Greenway as the teams came out for the second half.

After coming on just prior to half time in place of Dom Giampaolo who looked to have sustained a hamstring injury, Michael John had the task of leading the line for his outfit and capitalised on a great chance to score and give Olympic a 2-1 advantage in the 78^th minute.

Despite Tuggeranong’s best efforts to try and grab an equaliser to avoid a first defeat, the result was effectively sealed when Cattanach found a little space and used the wet surface to his advantage to drive home a low shot past Rory Larkin.

Frank Cachia’s men will now look to build on this result when they play host to the Riverina Rhinos on Saturday, while Tuggeranong will aim to shrug off their first defeat of the season and get back on track when they travel to winless Gungahlin on the same day.