Olympic Secure First 2022 Victory Against Northbridge

Sydney Olympic proved too strong for Northbridge Bulls at Belmore Stadium on Sunday afternoon, with goals to Roy O’Donovan and Adam Parkhouse securing a 2-0 win.

It could have been more if not for wayward finishing, but the home side did enough to garner their first win and precious three points of the campaign to add to their solitary point from the last round.

The Bulls were handed a lifeline in only the 3rd minute when Olympic’s Mathieu Cordier broke down the left and centred for Roy O’Donovan, but the burly striker stooped low to head wide of the woodwork.

The warning went unheeded and Olympic thought they found themselves in front in the 10th minute, but the header was wiped out for offside.

It wasn’t long before the home side did take the lead when awarded a penalty for a blatant shove in the back.

O’Donovan calmly slotted his strike home inside the right-hand upright and sent Bulls ‘keeper Nick Suman the wrong way.

Almost immediately after Olympic were forced into a change when replacing Nikola Udjur with Darcy Burgess, after the midfielder sustained an unfortunate injury.

Northbridge were making forays forward, but the final ball option was lacking at times and support was often lax in getting into dangerous areas, although they were being pressed deep, with James Cakovski often forced to go it alone against a solid Olympic defence.

Anthony Sparacino managed to clear an Adam Parkhouse header off the line just after the midway point of the half to keep his side in the contest.

Substitute Burgess blasted a difficult volley high and wide after setting up the move with a neat ball out to Parkhouse on the left and drifting into the area unnoticed.

Moudi Najjar came closest to restoring parity when setting off on a mazy run and culminating in a viciously dipping shot from the edge of the box that Nick Sorras was able to push over the bar in the 40th minute – the ‘keeper flying through the air at full stretch.

In most one-on-one battles Olympic proved too big and strong for the young visiting side.

Olympic carried a slender one-goal lead into the break.

Bulls coach, Mile Sterjovski, made wholesale changes on the restart with Mason Wells, Oliver Jones and Jed Drew replacing Moudi Najjar, Brodie Clarkson and Michael Ruhs respectively, quickly followed by the enforced change of Sebastian Hernandez to replace the injured Stephan De Robilliard.

The mass substitutions made little difference in the early stages as his side struggled to retain possession, allowing Parkhouse to eventually double the score in the 69th minute when slipping the ball under Sulman after Northbridge once again lost the ball in midfield.

Parkhouse had another couple of chances in quick succession to extend the lead further but both were wide of the mark.

Northbridge heads slowly began to drop despite putting in a decent shift during the second period and showing more bite, if not finesse, in their play but it proved too big a task on the day.

With the points all but secured, the match became a midfield stalemate with Olympic content to break up play and Northbridge seemingly running out of ideas and few chances created at either end.

In a quirk of football not often witnessed, Brendan Cholakian came on for the last eight minutes to replace Olympic substitute Darcy Burgess.

But it was Bulls ‘keeper Suman who had the last word, saving point-blank from O’Donovan to deny a third Olympic goal with an outstanding save.

It wasn’t a match for the purists but Olympic did enough to grind out their first win of the season leaving coach, Ante Juric, to praise the defensive efforts of his side.

“We defended well today which made it easier for us to attack,” he said.

“But we missed a lot of chances and that’s not a good sign, but we found the net twice and picked up the three points for the first time this year so we’re happy about that.

“Northbridge are a developing team and there’s a little bit of inexperience in the side and we were that bit stronger and won many of the one-on-one battles.

“We have some players in the side who have played A-League and NYL so there is that bit more experience in the side, but we are a young team that we’ve been developing over the last couple of years.

“We’ve got a few new players in the side, and we did enough to get the win today and that was always an important job for us.”

Bulls coach Mile Sterjovski was disappointed his side conceded from mistakes in the match.

“Our message has always been if we want to compete we have to win duals, the 50/50s but in saying that it’s disappointing to concede off of two mistakes today,” he said.

“We did control parts of the game and our build-up play was good at times, but the finer aspects were missing, the final pass or option wasn’t our strongest factor.

“We just lacked that little bit of quality and without making excuses it’s been a very interrupted pre-season for us and we’ll look to build on that and hope to become a much stronger force throughout the season.”

Match Stats

Sydney Olympic 2 (Ray O’Donovan 15’p, Adam Parkhouse 69’)

Northbridge Bulls 0

Belmore Sports Ground, Belmore

Sunday, 21st March 2022

Referee: Craig Fisher

Assistant Referees: Matthew Staples and Jackson Mackie

Fourth Official: Amber Morris

Sydney Olympic: 1. Nick Sorras, 2. Tom Whiteside, 3. Nikola Udjur (19. Darcy Burgess 19’, 10. Brendan Cholakian 83’), 4. Ben Van Meurs, 5. Michael Glassock, 6. Mathieu Cordier, 8. Sam McIlhatton, 9. Oliver Pufflet (22. Fabio Ferreira 59’), 11. Adam Parkhouse, 23. Daniel Dias, 99. Roy O’Donovan

Subs not used: 10. Brendan Cholakian, 15. Kristofer Nicolaou, 17. Marley Peterson, 20. Chris Parsons

Yellow Cards: Daniel Dias 10’, Tom Whiteside 67’

Red Cards: Nil

Northbridge Bulls: 1. Nick Suman, 2. Jack McLoughlin, 4. Anthony Sparacino, 6. Moudi Najjar (17Jed Drew 46’), 8. Brodie Clarkson (16. Oliver Jones 46’), 10. Rory Jordan, 11. Stephan De Robilliard (21. Sebastian Hernandez 54’), 13. James Cakovski, 15. Eddie Caspers (12. Marcus Sparacino 77’), 18. Michael Ruhs (7. Mason Wells 46’), 19. Lachlan Sepping

Subs not used: 20. Levi Kaye

Yellow Cards: Nil

Red Cards: Nil

Player Ratings

3 –  Roy O’Donovan (SO)

2 –  Anthony Sparacino (NB)

1 – Adam Parkhouse (SO)

By NPL NSW Men’s Reporter Micky Brock