Olympic fight back twice to salvage draw with Mariners

Untitled design (5)

Sydney Olympic came back twice to record a thrilling 2-2 draw against the Central Coast Mariners in a pulsating round 11 National Premier Leagues fixture at Industree Group Stadium on Saturday.

There were plenty of familiar faces making a return to Gosford for this match, including former Mariners A-League stars Roy O’Donovan, Nick Fitzgerald, Ziggy Gordon, Fabio Ferreira, and Michael Neill.

They weren’t the only familiar faces against former clubs, with Mariners manager Abbas Saad coming up against a Sydney Olympic side where he enjoyed playing and managerial success.

Both teams took a while to get into the game, with both sides having minimal early opportunities.

The Mariners struck first blood in Gosford in the 33rd minute through recent graduate Miguel Di Pizio. Jordan Segreto played a nice ball into James Bayliss who had his shot saved, but only as far as Di Pizio who tapped the ball into the net.

Olympic responded in the 42nd minute through their leading goal scorer Roy O’Donovan. The former Mariner was found with a long ball and Dean Larson didn’t deal with his first touch inside the box. O’Donovan’s first shot was saved well by Beach, but it rebounded back to the Irishman who converted on the second instance.

The Mariners went into the sheds at half time with the lead, however, as Lachlan Bayliss was the beneficiary of yet another rebound. Di Pizio dribbled well past a couple of defenders before having his shot saved, but it rebounded back to Bayliss who tapped it into the net.

The Mariners continued to control the match for the beginning of the second half, but Olympic managed to work their way into the game an found themselves an equaliser in the 74th minute.

O’Donovan forced a good save from Pat Beach which resulted in a corner – The resulting corner was flicked goalward from Ben van Meurs.

The Mariners almost snatched the lead for the third time in the match through substitute Aydan Hammond, with his effort drifting just wide in the 84th minute.

Hammond again found himself in space on the edge of the box in the 92nd minute, with his shot saved well by Nick Sorras, ending the match 2-2.

Mariners manager Abbas Saad felt like his team were the better on the night and deserved all three points.

“It was the one that got away,” Saad said.

“They fought back into the game, but we let them. We dropped off when we were on the front foot and you can’t do that against these guys.

“We had half a dozen chances to win the game, but we didn’t take them.”

For Saad, the dropped points were perhaps harder to swallow given that it occurred against his former club.

“It’s the first time I’ve been against them. It’s a very historic club and it’s a club that is very dear to me,“ Saad said.

“I can only wish them the best, but today was all about us. I felt we gave them the point today.

“Two weeks in a row we’ve drawn from winning positions. Hopefully the tied will turn soon.”

Match Stats

Central Coast Mariners Academy 2 (Di Pizio 33’, L. Bayliss 45+1’)

Sydney Olympic FC 2 (O’Donovan 42’, Van Meurs 75’)

Saturday 15th April, 2023

Industree Group Stadium, Gosford

Referee: Ivica Covis

Assistant Referees: Logan Jones, Amirhossein Hosnani

Fourth Official: Mikayla Ryan

Central Coast Mariners: 30. Patrick Beach (GK), 2. Sasha Kuzevski (3. Joshua Hong 55’), 4. Dean Larson, 5. Cameron Windust (c), 6. James Bayliss, 8. Lachlan Bayliss, 9. Miguel Di Pizio, 10. Nicholas Duarte (7. Aydan Hammond 68’), 12. Olayinka Sunmola (21. Maksim Kasalovic 89’), 15. Jordan Segreto (17. George Daniel 55’), 24. Zac Zoricich

Substitutes Not Used: 20. Anthony Pavlesic (GK), 19. Aiden Milicevic

Yellow Cards: Nil

Red Cards: Nil

Sydney Olympic FC: 1. Nicholas Sorras (GK), 2. Peter Politis (4. Ben van Meurs 24’), 3. Michael Neill, 5. Ziggy Gordon (c), 8. Sam McIllhatton, 9. Oliver Puflett (22. Fabio Ferreira 56’), 11. Adam Parkhouse, 23. Jakob Cresnar, 24. Hagu Gligor (10. Darcy Burgess 56’), 29. Nick Fitzgerald (14. Michael Vakis 80’), 99. Roy O’Donovan

Substitutes Not Used: 20. Christopher Parsons (GK), 12. Matthew Beuttner

Yellow Cards: Puflett 40’

Red Cards: Nil

Player Ratings

3 – L. Bayliss (CCM)

2 – Miguel Di Pizio (CCM)

1 – Nick Sorras (SOL)

-By Cameron Smith