Whilst neighbors Rockdale and Sutherland were battling it out for the Leader Cup, St George City defeated another National Premier Leagues NSW Men's heavyweight team thanks to a late Nathan Roberts goal beating Sydney Olympic 1-0 at Penshurst Park.
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Last week saw Mirko Jurilj's side defeat the Stallions and this week it was Olympic's turn to feel the wrath of the newly promoted side who have made it three wins on the trot as well as keeping its first clean sheet for 2023.
For Olympic, a star-studded side, it was their second successive loss as the Blues will be doing a bit of soul searching in getting back to winning ways.
The game started with both teams not letting their guards down until the 17th minute when a dangerous cross from the home team pressured Sydney Olympic.
St George City then should have scored when Pedro Ferrari found Kosta Petratos on the left side, but he fired into the net.
In the 40th minute a Sydney Olympic free-kick went wide of the post. It could have been a goal there and then for the visitors but it wasn't to be as both sides entered the sheds without troubling the scoreboard attendant.
St George City came out firing and should have scored in the opening minute of the second half when Olympics goalkeeper stumbled but he managed to block an on-target shot by Peterson with a brilliant one handed save.
St George City made a triple substitution as coach Mirko Jurilj tried to revitalise his team and in the 83rd minute the deadlock was broken when a long-range ball from the right by Kosta Petratos found substitute Nathan Roberts at the far post and he bundled the ball over the line from close range, much to the joy of the home fans in the stands.
It was all that was needed to separate the sides in what was a tightly fought contest.
St George City coach Mirko Jurilj was delighted to have taken another heavyweight NPL NSW Men's scalp as his troops kept their first clean sheet this season.
"It's great because we have an inner self belief but tonight wasn't really a great performance by us.
"Our execution wasn't the best, but we hung in there and I told the boys at training on Thursday that we are not going to score three goals in every game.
"You have to make sure you don't concede and for us it was great ball by Kosta to secure our goal.
"Football is a game of moments and fortunately for us it went our way tonight.
"It's our first clean sheet of the season and we only had two in pre-season out of 11 games, so against a team with some firepower tonight I thought that we contained them well."
St George now play Manly United at Cromer Park on Saturday night.
John Veage
Thirty five year photographer for Fairfax -former NSW Chief Photographer for FCN and now Photo Journalist for the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader in southern Sydney.Official photographer for Cycling Australia (20 years) Official photographer for Surf Life Saving Australia (30 years) Founding Life Member of Cronulla Boardriders Club and Life Member of Surfing Sutherland Shire among other things.
Thirty five year photographer for Fairfax -former NSW Chief Photographer for FCN and now Photo Journalist for the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader in southern Sydney.Official photographer for Cycling Australia (20 years) Official photographer for Surf Life Saving Australia (30 years) Founding Life Member of Cronulla Boardriders Club and Life Member of Surfing Sutherland Shire among other things.
