Picton has had a strong showing in the FFA Cup this campaign with a comprehensive 3-0 win over Sydney North West in the third round followed by a come from behind 3-2 win over Baulkham Hills. This set them up for a home clash against NPL giants Sydney Olympic who made light work of Mosman FC in the fourth round.

The Football South Coast club has endured a tough start to their league season but they were given a glimmer of hope against the 5th placed NSW NPL1 outfit when the Olympic head coach, Jaime Monroy handed in his resignation a day before the Hume Oval clash forcing assistant, Peter Zorbas to take over the reins.

Picton was without a number of their best eleven including captain Daniel Goodhew. This gave coach Brett Morley the opportunity to call upon some of his youth grade talent in Will Macleod and Liam Storkey who were named in the starting lineup. Olympic rested a number of their first team regulars but Zorbas was still able to call upon players with A-League experience including Radovan Pavicevic and Max Burgess.

The home side began the match with the same physical assertion that saw them achieve finals football in 2016. Although Olympic had the higher quality of player, the struggled to impose themselves on a determined Picton defence who were willing to throw their bodies around to block goalscoring opportunities.

In the 17th minute, William Angel got in behind the Rangers right fullback forcing Connor Dymond to make a lung-busting run to cut off his route to goal. Only 5 minutes early, Dymond was in a similar situation where he produced an inch-perfect slide tackle but this time he got it horribly wrong and gave away a penalty. Up stepped Pavicevic who guided the ball to the right of Brad Jones.

Despite the going behind, Picton remained resolute and managed to get into the sheds down by the solitary goal.

The start of the second period of play was nearly identical to the first with Picton defending bravely before giving away another clumsy penalty. This time Jason Madonis made a mazing run, beating four Ranger’s defenders before the young Macleod flung a leg out in the box giving the referee little choice but to point to the spot. Pavicevic stepped up again and struck it to the right, Jones was able to get a hand to the ball but he was not able to stop the former Newcastle Jet from putting his side two goals up.

Picton was now forced to push for a goal in the hope of the most unlikely of comebacks. The local side was able to make some determined breaks against the 2-time NSL winners but their final ball was not able to line them up with a clear path to goal.

With 10 minutes remaining Olympic picked up their third. After a dozen pass move, Picton’s defence opened up for Madonis to have a clear strike at goal and the midfielder made no mistake blasting it into the top of the net from ten metres out.

The third goal killed off any chance of a huge FFA Cup upset but Picton still searched for a consolation goal. With a minute of normal time to play, Mitchell Hall nearly produced some magic - the imposing forward outmuscled and turned his defender before shooting from a tight angle forcing Ezequiel Consoni into action.

The game ran to its conclusion along with Picton’s hopes of FFA Cup progression. Picton 0 Sydney Olympic 3.

After the match, Brett Morley was content with his side’s efforts, “We battled well, we knew we would be up against it. We didn’t create a lot of chances but we didn’t give away too many.”

“You’ve got to dare to dream… It’s a good avenue to test where we are at and give the boys some exposure to some quality opposition,” Morley said when asked about what competing in the FFA Cup offers for his club.

Sydney Olympic gave a starting debut to Tass Mourdoukoutas who praised Picton’s performance, “They really did put up a great fight and their boys gave us a game so fair play to them.”

The healthy local crowd braved the bitter cold highlands weather hoping for a sprinkling of cup magic. This never eventuated but they can be proud of their side’s efforts against Sydney Olympic who have been a staple of the Australian football landscape for 60 years. The Picton faithful will have fond memories of this cup journey and we hope to see them in next year's competition.

Now Picton needs to turn their attention to the Illawarra Premier League where they currently sit in last place with three games to make up. It will not be easy for the Rangers with their next test coming on Saturday against league leaders Bulli. This match is set to kick off at 2.30 pm at Hume Oval.

Post match interview with Picton coach Brett Morley - https://soundcloud.com/dylanarvela/picton-boss-brett-morley-after-his-side-bow-out-of-the-ffa-cup

 

Picton Rangers - 0

Yellow cards - 3 (Miranda, J.Morley, D.Morley) Red cards - 0

 

Sydney Olympic - 3 (Pavicevic 17’ pen 57’ pen, Madonis 80’)

Yellow cards - 2 (Madonis, Mourdoukoutas) Red cards - 0

 

Wednesday the 26th of April at Hume Oval, Picton

Picton Rangers - Brad Jones, Brendan Berkeley, Dale Nicol, Scott Miranda, Connor Dymond, Jarred Morley, Ben Roberts, Liam Storkey, Dayne Morley, Mitchell Hall and Will Macleod

Subs - Lachlan O’Bree, Hayden Berkeley (on for Roberts), Connor O’Neil (on for Miranda) and Jesse Howard (on for B.Berkeley)

Coach - Brett Morley

 

Sydney Olympic - Mark Rodic, Thomas Whiteside, Mitchell Stamatellis, Max Burgess, Darcy Burgess, Paul Katsetis, Radovan Pavicevic, Ezequiel Consoni, Tass Mourdoukoutas, William Angel and Yu Kuboki

Subs - Paul Henderson, Sebastian Malfara (on for M.Burgess), Christopher Gligor, Nikita Andricopoulos (on for Kuboki), Jason Madonis (on for Angel)

Coach - Peter Zorbas (interim)

 

Referee - Khodr Yaghi

Assistant Referees - Stephen Ellsmore and Chloe Gray

 

Report by Dylan Arvela on Twitter @dylanarvela