Wollongong Olympic fired a warning shot at the teams above them in the Illawarra Mercury Premier League on Saturday with an emphatic  4-0 win over Wollongong United.

“On that performance, we can match any team in this league,” said coach Rob Birkin after the game.

And while the statistics will suggest Sam Gordon was the hero of the afternoon with his hat-trick, this was an overall team performance, which must give Olympic heart as they march into the business half of the season.

Wollongong United were a shadow of the team that had beaten Olympic 3-0 on the opening day of the season. They were missing key players, particularly up front, but will have to hope this was a temporary setback in a season that has seen their attractive style of football pay dividends, until today at least.

For the first ten minutes of this game, it looked as if United right back Daisuke Yuzama would be his usual threat as he latched onto a long ball from Moto Kinjo and forced a save out of Hayden Durose in the Olympic goal. Not long after, Durose was in action again as he parried away a dipping shot from Johnny Martinoski, but nobody was on hand to pick up the loose ball for United.

The visitors may have had those early chances, but there was already a sense that Olympic were lying in wait. They were quick on the break, first to the ball and generally showed a hunger from the opening minutes of the game.

Gordon’s first chance came when he got up highest to reach a corner and flicked his header just wide of the post. With his second chance, he made no mistake, linking up neatly with Niklas Schon, who cut inside and laid the ball off for Gordon to finish with a sweet right foot.

By the 25^th minute, Olympic had doubled their lead. Gordon won a corner down the right, Schon swung the ball in with his left foot and top scorer Justin Potter, playing the first half in defence but coming forward for set-pieces, rose above everyone and steered his header home.

United tried to respond immediately, Kinjo again finding Yuzawa out on the right, with the attacking defender this time winning a corner, from which Kota Kawase got up highest and aimed a header for the top corner, but well within reach of Durose. This was Kawase’s last contribution to the game, as a clash of heads left him unable to continue, so forcing another change to the United line-up.

Before the visitors had time to settle again, Olympic pounced. First Brendan Fordham set up Schon, who was denied by Jordan Nikolovski in the United goal. But the keeper had little chance when a clever, quick-passing move inside the area set up Gordon for his second and Olympic’s third.

From 3-0 at half time, Olympic showed no sign of complacency and were clearly hungry for more.

Schon was always dangerous, playing down the right even though strongly left-footed, he would cut inside and either go for goal himself or create chances for others in the area, his best effort coming on the hour, when his shot fizzed wide of the upright.

United’s best chance of the game came on 70 minutes when Ben Brooks whipped in a cross which Durose just got a finger tip to, pushing it onto the bar and out for a corner. A goalmouth scramble followed, but nobody was able to put a clean finishing touch and the attack came to nothing.

At the other end, Fordham found himself unmarked on the edge of the area, but with just the keeper to beat, he managed to pull his shot wide of the post.

By now Potter had switched to an attacking role, and Olympic kept pressing for another goal. They didn’t need to wait long. With ten minutes to go, Potter found Schon who switched inside and laid the ball off to Gordon who fired home for his hat trick.

Nikolovski denied Potter a second goal from a goalbound header, and with minutes left on the clock Potter set up Schon, but his shot was off target.

Birkin was excited at his team’s performance overall: “That’s just an extension of what we’ve been building here in the last few weeks. There’s a real buzz around the club at the moment, from the Chairman to the ball boys, and the players have come together to play the football we want , to the system we want. They’re playing as a unit and there’s real camaraderie out there.”

In contrast, United are without their leading goalscorer Matt Floro for the next few weeks and are missing other key players. “It makes a big difference to a team when you have to make so many changes”, said coach Oliver Vrtkovski, “We just didn’t get into a rhythm today, but we came up against a team that simply played better on the day.”

On Friday night Cringila beat South Coast United 1-0 courtesy of a first half penalty. In other Saturday matches, Tarrawanna gave Bellambi a 5-1 drubbing whilst Shell Cove just can't but a win at the moment after they were forced to settle for 1-1 draw with Albion Park White Eagles. Dapto Dandaloo and Woonona also shared the spoils in an exciting 1-1 draw with Port Kembla taking on Bulli on Sunday. 

- Simon Duffin -

- Archive Photo - Illawarra Mercury -