Wollongong Olympic sounded out a warning to their top five rivals by thumping the Albion Park White Eagles 4-0 are Terry Reserve. All four goals were scored in the second period of play with the mercurial John Martinoski starring with a brace including a stunning free kick.

 

The match was preceded by a Welcome to Country as well as the playing of a didgeridoo as Albion Park used the match as an opportunity to celebrate NAIDOC with the side playing in a custom strip. This was followed by a minute of silence in remembrance of Port Kembla player Justin Cario who tragically passed away on Saturday. The 20-year-old made his First Grade debut for Albion Park in 2015 before going on to play 55 matches for the club across all grades.

 

The match itself began in stellar fashion with both sides having a couple of decent opportunities in the opening 20 minutes. After seven minutes, a poor White Eagles clearance fell to Jack Balmforth in the area with the Olympic wideman’s shot blocked out for a corner. Albion Park’s first chance came a couple of minutes later with Hikaru Kawasakiya latching on to a long ball down the left channel, he beat his marker as he cut inside but his curling effort floated past the far post.

 

In the 18th minute, the White Eagles had another sight at goal with Shayne Ardle’s strike from outside the box deflecting wide for a corner. From the resulting corner, the ball travelled up field with Yusuke Ueda rounding the goalkeeper before tapping towards goal only for Chris Nathaniel to bundle it off the line.

 

The final 25 minutes of the first half didn’t match the frantic nature of the opening 20 minutes with the sides going in goalless at the break with the visitors in slight control of the possession stakes.

 

Albion Park would have the first chance of the second half with Chris Gomez getting on the end of a Kody Maude cross only for his shot to be blocked by an Olympic defender. This would be the last real chance for the hosts with Olympic grabbing the tie but the scruff of the neck in the 55th minute with three set-piece goals in seven minutes.

 

The first saw Kojiro Hori line up from 20 metres out and just to the left - the Japanese flanker picking out the bottom right corner with a whipped strike despite Chris Fuentes-Ramirez getting a hand to it. This was followed by a John Martinoski free kick from deep on the right touchline which came off the crossbar with Olympic skipper Brendan Fordham poking the ball home after a goalmouth scramble.

 

The third goal, in the 62nd minute, was another Martinoski set-piece but this time from a similar position to Hori’s free kick seven minutes early. The Olympic number 10 aimed for the opposite corner to his teammate in placing the ball in the top left corner.

This rapid succession of goals clearly rattled the home side who struggled to work themselves back into the match.

 

Olympic coach George Antoniou brought Matthew Floro and Julian Minutillo into the fold for the final period of play and their energy proved to be another concern for the Albion Park defence. This would eventually result in a fourth goal for Olympic with seven minutes remaining. Floro played Martinoski into the left of the box and he made no mistake in slotting the ball into the bottom right corner.

 

The game was stumbling to an inevitable Olympic win before it got even worse for Paul Carter's side with Kane Wright dismissed for a second bookable offence in the 92nd minute after preventing the restart of play from a corner. This would be the last notable event of the match with Olympic winning 4-0 and keeping their title chase alive for one more week at least.

 

The three points secures a top-two finish for Olympic for the second season in a row and Antoniou said he was happy with his side’s exploits against a potential finals opponent. He also conceded with his side trailing Bulli by four points with two matches remaining, the League title was all but gone.

 

“I thought from start to finish we dominated the game and we played to what we wanted to do and the rest took care of itself,” Antoniou said.

 

“There’s always a chance [of winning the League Championship]. Obviously, Bulli are a quality side and I can’t see them dropping two games but while we are there we have a chance.”

 

Olympic are back in action next Saturday when they visit Picton who are on the brink of the wooden spoon. The Rangers lost 9-0 at the PCYC earlier in the season in a match which saw Ueda score seven goals.

 

As for Albion Park, the defeat leaves them in third place, five ahead of Wollongong United and seven behind Olympic. White Eagles coach Paul Carter pointed to his side’s failure to deal with set pieces as one of the reasons for the result while also admitting Olympic were by far the better side.

 

“Olympic deserved to win, 100 percent. We have got a lot of work to do but we will learn from it and hopefully move on,” Carter said.

 

"The biggest thing I was disappointed with was that we got caught ball watching a few times… at the end of the day, it is 11 players versus 11 players but they seemed to have a lot of space so there are people out there who are going to have to work harder.”

 

Next weekend the White Eagles host top of the table Bulli who will be gunning for a result which would see them retain their League Championship crown before visiting Wollongong United on the final day of the season. Avoid a defeat against Bulli would guarantee third place for Carter's side.

 

Sunday 12 August 2018 @ Terry Reserve

 

Albion Park White Eagles - 0

 

Wollongong Olympic - 4 (HORI 55’, FORDHAM 57’, MARTINOSKI 62’ 84’)

 

Albion Park White Eagles - Chris FUENTES-RAMIREZ, Blake MCGINN, Kane WRIGHT, Shannon FIELDING, Chris NATHANIEL, Nathan RALPH, Robert DELBANCO, Kody MAUDE, Chris GOMEZ, Shayne ARDLE, Hikaru KAWASAKIYA

 

Subs - Luke DEBROT (on for MCGINN), Shaun MCRAE (on for KAWASAKIYA), Ferres AOUN (on for ARDLE), Jacob HUFTON

 

Coach - Paul CARTER

 

Wollongong Olympic - Hayden DUROSE, Kojiro HORI, David HARTAS, Jake DUCZYNSKI, Shun TOKUNO, Lukas STERGIOU, Vaughan PATTERSON, Brendan FORDHAM, Jack BALMFORTH, John MARTINOSKI, Yusuke UEDA

 

Subs - Julian MINUTILLO (on for BALMFORTH), Matthew FLORO (on for STERGIOU), Luke FOSTER (on for PATTERSON), Christian PRETTO

 

Coach - George ANTONIOU

 

Referee - Bobby MAZEVSKI

 

Assistant Referees - Nathan ALTERNATOR, Gareth JENKINS

 

Report by Dylan Arvela, on Twitter @dylanarvela

 

Photo by Kiah Hufton