Wollongong Olympic powered their way to a 5-1 win over Cringila Lions in this opening fixture of the Illawarra Mercury Premier League season at Crehan Park on Wednesday night. First half goals from John Martinoski, Nuno Pires and Yusuke Ueda virtually sealed the game by the break. Captain Brendan Fordham added another just after the restart, and although Joel Taddeo got one back for the Lions, there was more misery for the home side as Todd Sparks steered the ball into his own net late on.

Speaking after the game, Olympic coach Rob Birkin said he was happy with the result, but also pleased with how quickly his new players were fitting in: “We did well last year, but credit to this club for getting out to recruit new blood, targeting some areas where we were short last year. We’re heading in the right direction.”

The Olympic starting eleven showed their attacking intent, with new signings Pires and Martinoski lining up alongside last season’s top scorer Ueda, and Birkin revealed that his other strike option Blake Coates might also have started but for a knock in the warm-up.

Martinoski was man of the match from the whistle, though, with a relentless workrate across the pitch. It took only four minutes for him to open the scoring, latching onto Shun Tokuno’s cut-back from the byline and firing home from ten yards out.

Olympic are a big side physically, Fordham and Jake Duczynski putting in some crunching tackles, but they are quick too and never gave Cringila time to settle with the ball. So when the Lions did gain possession, they far too quickly gave it away.

The home side had to wait till the 15^th minute for their first attack. New centre forward Milan Atlagic did well to beat his marker down the right, but only found the side-netting from a tight angle, and it was Atlagic again who floated a header just past the far post a few minutes later.

If those chances were a sign of the Lions coming into this game, Pires soon snuffed them out when put through by a superb ball down the middle by Harrison Brown. He slid the ball home to make it 2-0 on the half hour.

The match was settled just before the break.

At one end Taddeo floated in a beautiful free kick to Takao Teramoto’s feet, and the Lions’ striker was given time to shoot from six yards out, but Hayden Durose got his body in the way to keep his side two up. And on the stroke of half time, Ueda made it 3-0 after Lions keeper Alexander Boullosa upended him inside the box, Ueda himself converting the penalty.

Many teams would sit back on a 3-0 half time lead, but Olympic came out with the same intensity as they had the first forty-five.

Within five minutes they had gone four up. It was Martinoski again who started the move, finding Tokuno out on the left. The Japanese newcomer, who had an excellent game all night, sent in a pinpoint cross to Fordham’s feet by the far post. It was a simple tap-in for the Olympic captain.

At the other end, Duczynski was penalised for a challenge just outside the box. One of the Lions’ new Japanese recruits, Sho Katayama, fired the free kick against the bar, the ball careering out straight to Taddeo, who managed to prod home through a sea of legs for Cringila’s consolation.

Both sides made changes as the sheer pace of the game began to tell.

Ibrahim Sesay came on down the right flank for Cringila and looked useful on the ball. He also hit the upright with a zinging shot after a superb clearance from Taddeo. And Katayama tried a repeat of his earlier free kick, but this time sent the ball some way over the bar.

But it was Olympic who had the final say. First Jamie Wakeling, with his first touch after coming on, almost caught Boullosa out with a fine flick. And then Martinoski fired a long range shot into the six yard box with eight minutes to go, where an unlucky Sparks carried the ball over the line as he tried to clear.

Cringila coach Wally Savour acknowledged that his side had struggled to cope with Olympic’s pace on the ball. “Our energy levels need to be higher and we were about a metre behind where they were. We tried to play a bit of football, but over the 90 minutes, we probably had 20.”

“This is not a bad squad,” he said, “and it’s a work in progress. Our preparation has been affected by the weather, but I’ll be letting them know I’m expecting more than what they delivered tonight.”

Cringila Lions – 1 (Taddeo 56’)

Wollongong Olympic – 5 (Martinoski 4’, Pires 30’, Ueda pen 45’, Fordham 50’, Sparks og 82’)

Assists: (Cringila: Katayama; Olympic: Tokuno 2, Martinoski, Brown)

Wednesday 29 March 2017

Crehan Park

Referee: Nathan Wotton

Assistant Referees: Alex Vangelovoski, Caleb Blanch

Cringila Lions: Alexander Boullosa, Nathan Macgraw, Aleksander Todoroski (Alexander Brbevski 85’), Daniel Ramirez (Ibrahim Cesay 45’), Joel Taddeo, Josiah Sherwen, Shinchi Takeuchi, Todd Sparks, Takao Teramoto, Sho Katayama, Milan Atlagic (Rodney Lewin 70’) (Subs not used: Nicholas Purdevski, Michael Stojanoski)

Wollongong Olympic: Hayden Durose, Haydyn Lloyd, Shun Tokuno, Jack Keating, Jake Duczynski, Harrison Brown, Lukas Stergiou (Brendan Belsito 89’), Yusuke Ueda, John Martinoski, Nuno Pires (Jamie Wakeling 80’), Brendan Fordham (Jack Balmforth 72’) (sub not used: Dion Avouris

Report by Simon Duffin

Photo: Library Archive