Two late goals stole a last gasp victory for Wollongong Olympic against Port Kembla at Wetherall Park on Wednesday night, cruelly knocking the home team out of Bampton Cup’s Round of 16.

Olympic coach Rob Birkin was pleased with the victory but felt his team was well below their best on the night.

“I just feel tonight we didn't get into our rhythm,” said Birkin.

“Port probably controlled the tempo of the game through the way they play, and we probably fell into their trap and allowed them to do that.”

The fixture began with fiery intensity in chilly conditions with a number of loose challenges and misdirected through balls by each team in the opening minutes.

Port Kembla was the first team to trouble the scoreboard with a play triggered by Joseph Lavalle in the 13th minute, finding Sandy Lowcock on the right of the penalty box who unleashed a venomous strike which was bumbled down to Michele Ganz who had no trouble finding the net for the opening goal.

Following the goal, Port Kembla held the momentum for the next period of the clash, with both Sandy Lowcock and Nick Jovanovski sending down strikes at goal.

In the 32nd minute the tide began to turn for Olympic shown by Sam Gordon toying with the Port Kembla defence and thundering a right foot strike which Port Kembla keeper Ryan Franks was able to secure on his second attempt.

In the 44th minute the constant Olympic pressure yielded a result, with Kyle Hazebroek darting down the left sideline and driving a lovely cross along the grass to the feet of Ueda who superbly hooked the ball just inside the post of goals with his left foot.

The knockout fixture was evenly poised at halftime, the score reading 1-1.

In the 55th minute Port Kembla pulled one goal ahead with a cross from the right sideline targeting Michele Ganz, who calmly finished the goal for his brace and a narrow Port Kembla lead.

The tension in the match rose as the seconds creeped towards the 90th minute, with a number of adventurous free kick opportunities from Wollongong Olympic sending scares to the home crowd as they narrowly missed the goal.

An equaliser finally came in the 85th minute, with a corner-kick from Olympic’s Brendan Fordham curling towards goals and found a deflection off Port Kembla’s Douglas Woodiwiss to sneak in past the Port Kembla defence into goals for a 2-2 scoreline.

Extra time seemed likely until only 2 minutes later, with swift lead up work by Olympic finding Brendan Fordham down the right sideline, with his cross into the box hitting Ja Kon Yu racing through behind the leading strikers to nail the match-winning goal for Wollongong Olympic.

Port Kembla will return home to Wetherall Park on Sunday afternoon to battle fellow Bampton Cup losers Cringila Lions.

Wollongong Olympic will travel to Barrack Heights Sportsfield to look to continue their winning run against Shell Cove FC.

Wollongong Olympic will wait until the second week of June to play in the Bampton Cup quarter finals with the opponent undecided.

 

 

Port Kembla 2 – Ganz 14’, 54’

Wollongong Olympic 3 - Ueda 44’, OG Woodiwiss 85’, Yu 87’

 

Referee: A Naylor

Assistant Referee: A. Crawley & T. Arnold

 

Port Kembla:

Franks, Woodiwiss, Mobbs, Frkovic, Stella, Jovanovski, Terramotto, Nickolouski, Lowcock, Lavalle, Ganz

Substitutes - Volcanovski, Sawcci, Bussunni, Mussamecci

 

Wollongong Olympic:

Durose, Gordon, Lloyd, Duczynski, Hazebroek, Keating, Brown, Lee, Fordham, Ueda, Yu

Substitutes - Rodriguez, Mangos, Wakeling

 

Report by Daniel McGookin

Twitter: @mcgoookin93

Picture: Pedro Garcia (archive)