Bonnyrigg buzz at Belmore
BONNYRIGG White Eagles secured a hard fought 1-0 win over a defiant Sydney Olympic outfit at Belmore Sports Ground on Sunday.
Olympic were left to rue a number of missed opportunities in a decent display as a Chris Tadrosse free kick in the 19′ minute made the difference between the two sides.
The loss leaves Sydney Olympic winless at home in this year’s IGA National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s 1 competition.
The Blues started the match on the front foot with Bonnyrigg sitting deep for the opening minutes.
The first chance of the match came in the 8′ minute when an Amaury Gauthier cross was met to Michael Gaitatzis whose header from six yards went over the bar.
Bonnyrigg quickly responded with a chance of their own a minute later as Tynan Diaz entered the Olympic box, unleashing fantastic shot forcing Olympic goalkeeper Paul Henderson into a great diving save.
Former Perth Glory midfielder Howard Fondyke made the Olympic defence look amateurish in the 12th minute, dribbling his way past three players and onto goal before hitting the ball wide of the left hand upright.
Evan Kostopoulos got on the end of a long ball four minutes later, holding it up and turning Dylan Fox to shoot directly at Matthew Nash who palmed the ball away.
The end to end action finally saw the opening goal of the match in the 19′ minute as a Tadrosse curling free kick from wide on the right caught Henderson on his heels, with the ball passing everyone in the box and hitting the back of the net.
Tadrosse almost doubled the lead in identical fashion just before the half hour mark but Hendersson quickly claimed the ball to keep his side in the match.
Bonnyrigg continued to apply pressure with Adrian Ucchino finding space on the right before dribbling into the box with his shot claimed by a diving Henderson.
Sydney Olympic made their way into the Bonnyrigg half in the 37′ minute as Harris Gaitatzis’ attempt to find Go Shirai at the near post, only for the White Eagles to get to the ball first.
The two combined to create a great chance two minutes before the break, with Shirai slicing his shot wide from point blank range.
Bonnyrigg came out of the break hungry to put the game to bed and almost doubled their lead within two minutes when a Tynan Diaz free kick was tapped onto the cross bar by Henderson before Olympic cleared.
Sydney Olympic coach Grant Lee added an extra attacker to his line up in the 50′ minute, replacing Brendan Hooper and Michael Gaitatzis with Taiga Soeda and Dimitri Hatzimouratis.
The move inspired Olympic as they began to move up the field with more intent.
Hatzimouratis started to trouble the Eagles defence with his physical presence and could have brought his team back into the game on the 60′ minute mark, only to head the ball directly at Nash.
Olympic pinned Bonnyrigg into their box with a succession of free kicks and corners in the 65′ minute, with the best chance coming again falling to Shirai who could not time his shot as Bonnyrigg cleared.
Shirai had the home fans on the edge of their seats in the 74′ minute as a fantastic dipping volley went over the head of Nash but bounced on top of the net.
Kostopoulos was the next to test the White Eagles, with the former Adelaide United rising well to head the ball goal wards with Nash dropping fast to save.
Bonnyrigg striker Robbie Younis had a great chance to put the game to bed with 10 minutes remaining after he was put through on goal via an Aaron Peterson through ball, but volley from the former golden boot winner went over the bar.
As the game wore on Bonnyrigg’s defence stood tall to block several shots from the Olympic attack.
Olympic’s hopes of getting a result were dashed in the 86′ minute when Yianni Spyrakis was sent from the field after his second yellow card.
Following the match, Bonnyrigg White Eagles coach Brian Brown was pleased with his side’s performance.
“It’s a tough venue to come to and I thought our performance in the first half was excellent,” Brown said.
“We were probably a bit unfortunate to not be two or three goals up.
"Credit to them they came back at us in the second half where I think we didn’t keep as much possession as we had in the first half.
“That’s six clean sheets in the last seven matches so I’m very happy.”
In the home dressing sheds a disappointed Grant Lee said his side needed to start taking their chances.
“We just keep shooting ourselves in the foot every week. We keep giving our opponents easy goals and it’s very hard to keep chasing games.
“You look at the number of opportunities we created we should definitely have taken something out of that game.
“There is no team that has scored a decent goal against us – we’ve been a contributing factor in all of them.”
Match Stats
Sydney Olympic 0
Bonnyrigg White Eagles 1 (Chris Tadrosse 19’)
Sunday May 25, 2014
Belmore Sports Ground, Belmore
Referee: Kurt Ams
Assistant Referees: James Tesoriero and Joon Park
Fourth Official: Lachlan Keevers
Sydney Olympic: 1.Paul Henderson; 10.Harris Gaitatzis, 39.Michael Gaitatzis (9.Dimitri Hatzimouratis 50’), 24.Amaury Gauthier (7. William Angel 64’), 4.Brendan Hooper (18.Taiga Soeda 50’), 23.Evan Kostopoulos, 14.Peter Markovic, 19.Go Shirai, 2.Brayden Sorge, 15.Yiannis Spyrakis, 5.Brayden Treloar
Substitutions not used: 18. Taiga Soeda, 3. Troy Danaskos, 7. William Angel
Yellow Cards: Peter Markovic 26’, Yiannis Spyrakis 47’
Red Cards: Yiannis Spyrakis 86’
Bonnyrigg White Eagles: 1.Matthew Nash, 8.Alex Canak, 21.Ken Chun (9.Robbie Younis 50’), 7. Tynan Diaz, 16.Howard Fondyke, 35.Terry McFlynn (4.David Vrankovic 50’), 5.Chris Tadrosse (c), 18.Adrian Ucchino, 19.Aaron Peterson, 6.Nikola Zonjic, 12.Dylan Fox
Substitutes not used: 22.Liam Gobbo, 13.Adam Jenner, 2.Alex Mansueto
Yellow Cards: Younis 59’
Red Cards: Nil
Player ratings:
3- Go Shirai (OLY)
2- Matthew Nash (BWE)
1-Chris Tadrosse (BWE)
– By Chris Georges, National Premier Leagues NSW Mens 1 Reporter, at Belmore Sports Ground
