Walter Pless on Football

Glenorchy Knights v Hobart Olympic [Premier League, KGV Park, Friday, 22 August 2008]

By Walter Pless
________________________________________________

Glenorchy Knights 0
Hobart Olympic 1 (E Tsakiris 90)

HT: 0-0 Att: 100 Ref: D Gadd

Glenorchy Knights: Peter - Wiggins (Green 82), Grundy (Millington 74), Dzelalija, Gordon - Minnucci (Clay 53), Begovic, Igor, Daniels - Huigsloot, Fielding [Joint Player-Coaches: J Fielding, J Begovic]

Hobart Olympic: Ioannou - Mohamad, Lebski, Tsimiklis, Richardson - Backhouse, Mason, Hedge (E Tsakiris 50), Larzabal - Assenheimer (Kunwar 79), Grillas (Percy, 71) [Substitute not used: Plomaritis] [Coach: Farrell Shaw]

________________________________________________

This 1-0 win for third-ranked Hobart Olympic was a huge blow to fourth-placed Glenorchy Knights, who are now in danger of finishing the season in fifth spot.

Only a brilliant display of goalkeeping by the Knights’ Ben Peter kept the home side in contention and it was a last-minute goal by Emmanuel Tsakiris which finally settled the issue.

Peter denied Kosta Grillas twice in the first half with fine saves, while in the second, he produced outstanding saves against Fred Assenheimer and substitute Aaron Percy.

The Knights’ Tom Huigsloot was playing his last game before retiring and it was a disappointing finale. Not only did Knights lose, but Huigsloot missed two gilt-edged chances to score. On another occasion, he took too long to get into a shooting position when inside the box and the chance evaporated.

He has been a great servant for the club, however, and it was sad to see him bow out in this game.

Olympic were missing six regular players through injury or suspension - goalkeeper Dmitri Nester, defenders Nektar Vavoulas and Peter Tsakiris, midfielder Chris Tsakiris, and strikers Michael Bulis and Danijel Djekanovic.

Olympic had the first real chance of the match in the 6th minute when Adam Hedge cut the ball back from the byline on the left, but Grillas’s shot was well saved by Peter.

In the 14th minute, Huigsloot collected Igor’s header following a free-kick but shot wide when he should have worked the goalkeeper, John Ioannou, who had little to do all night.

Five minutes later, Grillas did the hard work by outwitting a couple of defenders on the left before cutting inside to shoot, but Peter snatched the ball out of the air and held it.

The first half ended with Igor shooting wide of Ioannou’s right-hand post.

Ten minutes after the resumption, Knights earned a free-kick on the right of the box. Janko Begovic picked out Huigsloot unmarked at the far post, but he shot over the bar.

In the 75th minute, substitute Jade Clay sliced a shot across the face of goal and Josh Fielding was the first to the ball, but his shot was blocked by a defender.

In the 79th minute, Assenheimer got on to the end of a long cross from the right at the far post. His header was directed downwards but lacked pace and Peter pulled off a marvellous save.

Six minutes from the end, an instinctive save by Peter denied substitute Aaron Percy.

In the final minute, with a goalless draw seemingly inevitable, substitute Dipendra Kunwar went on a diagonal run from left to right and released the ball on the edge of the box for substitute Emmanuel Tsakiris to beat Peter to the ball and score from six metres.

________________________________________________

• Glenorchy Knights goalkeeper, Ben Peter, said:

“We were definitely unlucky to lose.

“I thought it was going to be a fitting end to the season, but 1-0 down at the end there wasn’t really a great result to send Tommy off, because that’s his last game, for the season and for his career.

“It wasn’t really fitting to send him off with a 1-0 loss. They’re the breaks and that’s what happened.

“One save down in the corner from a header, I was lucky to get to. A bit more power on the header and I didn’t think I was going to get to it.

“The other one was just more of a reflex save that you make when the ball is coming straight at you and you see it late and you get your hands to it.

“If University win both their games, we could lose fourth spot.

“Our expectations were fairly high for the season and we would have liked to have finished as high as in the top three, but results tended not to go our way in some games.

“Next year, I’m sure we’ll bounce back and be up in the mix.

• Hobart Olympic coach, Farrell Shaw, said:

“A good win to end the season, especially when you consider we had up to seven regular players out.

“A few young lads came in and did the job for us in the end.

“Young ‘Dipper’ is scoring goals for us in the Under-19s so he deserved his run tonight.

“You wouldn’t want to put him on too early. Being so small, we didn’t want to damage him too much. But, it proved he’s got no fear.

“A lot of soul searching during the week turned things around. The players were very disappointed in themselves. A lot of people were basically embarrassed.

“We came out and decided no matter what team we put out would do the job.”

__________________________________________________

STATISTICS

GLENORCHY KNIGHTS HOBART OLYMPIC
10 Goal Attempts 17
3 Shots on Target 7
3 Corners 9
6 Fouls Committed 10
1 Off-Sides 4
1 (Grundy 57) Yellow Cards 1 (Lebski 27)
0 Red Cards 0

Glenorchy Knights:

PLAYER GOAL ATTEMPTS SHOTS ON TARGET
Daniels 2 1
Huigsloot 4 0
Begovic 1 1
Igor 2 0
Clay 1 1

Hobart Olympic:

PLAYER GOAL ATTEMPTS SHOTS ON TARGET
Assenheimer 4 1
Grillas 3 2
Mason 5 1
Tsimiklis 2 0
Percy 1 1
Kunwar 1 1
E Tsakiris 1 1