By Peter Kambounias

Sydney Olympic got back in the winners circle with a 3-0 win over local rivals APIA Leichhardt Tigers in round 10 of the TeleChoice Premier League at Belmore Sports Ground.

All the goals came in the second half with Chris Triantis converting two penalties, both for handball offences, and Anthony Hartshorn sealed the win with a goal against his former club.

The game was full of incidents culminating in Triantis being sent off for his second yellow card in injury time at the end of the game.  The send off was reminiscent of Matthew Mayora bagging a hat trick against Marconi only to be sent off later in that game.  Mayora made his return to first grade action today as a second half substitute.

Triantis will serve his mandatory one game suspension in the Tiger Turf Cup round 3 game against Inter Lions.

Pre match news revolved around the return of Shannon Cole which is looking like only two to three weeks away, Peter Zorbas who was missing due to a quadricep injury picked up at training and a scorching goal in the Under 20's game from Siraj Al Tall who finally got his clearance to play for Olympic.  Al Tall and Mayora were as keen as mustard when warming up on the outer field before the game, and the rest of the squad had a determined look about them.

Things got off to a flyer for Olympic.  Just 29 seconds in and Triantis hit a low shot which forced APIA keeper Matthew Nash into a tricky save to his left.  Three minutes later Iain Ramsay found burly striker Paul Wither who chested down and turned on a sixpence to chip the ball into the six yard box only for the ball to come out as far as Anthony Doumanis who struck first time but the APIA defence blocked the fierce shot.

On nine minutes it was Milorad Simonovic's turn to shoot from distance after some intricate one-two passes, and seconds later ex Olympic striker Franco Parisi hit a volley that took a slight touch before hitting the outside of the net - giving the Olympic fans a scare.  Every APIA aerial raid on the Olympic penalty area was well cleaned up by Olympic keeper Michael Herbet who dominated his domain.

Someone forgot to tell the APIA players that the use of the arm was illegal in football - it was a lesson that ended up costing the side in the second half but the fans in the stand got a preview with a blatant handball that was incredibly missed by the grandstand side referee's assistant.  Ramsay launched a deep cross from the left and it floated over the goal and towards the by line where APIA's Michael Galluzzo clearly raised his arm and elbowed the ball over the line.  Referee Atila Stibinger was probably unsighted so he got the benefit of the doubt, but the same could not be said of his assistant. 

In the 24th Simonovic poked a through ball into space ahead of Wither and Nash.  Wither was a bit too slow for the pacy ball and he didn't get enough of the ball before Nash scrambled to put Wither off. 

APIA's Ray Younis certainly didn't lack pace when he darted upfield and was shuffled away from a decent goal scoring position by man of the match Michael Cindric.  Younis' shot speared across the face of goal.

The overall first half lacked a bit of fire and brimstone but that changed in the dying minutes of the first half.  A few hard tackles and a face off between Wither and APIA's Martin Vass saw Wither stick out his chest which bumped Vass who fell to the ground as if he were kinghit.  A 'friendly gathering' of all players ensued and after a minute of sorting out the situation the referee cautioned Wither for his 'challenge'.

Wither got his own back in creating a goal out of nothing for Olympic.  In the 53rd minute he demonstrated a very valuable lesson to young players - a lesson that players should never give up when trying to get the ball.  Wither was lurking upfield on the right flank and he ran down his defensive opponent in possession.  Wither took the ball off the defender and send a cross to Hartshorn in the box.  'H' had the goalkeeper beaten with his shot which was heading into the net but John Kelso stuck out his arm to stop the certain goal.  Stibinger pointed to the penalty spot but only showed a yellow card to Kelso for what looked like a very easy case for a send off. Triantis stepped up and sent his low shot to the right of Nash to make it 1-0 to Olympic.

Olympic had chances to double the lead in the 63rd through Wither's glancing header off a Ramsay corner and in the 67th through a Doumanis rocket that seered over the crossbar.

The lead was doubled in the 68th thanks to a second spot kick given for yet another deliberate hand ball.  Galluzzo may have got away with the first half hand ball but Stibinger didn't miss his second obvious misdemeanour and Galluzzo got his marching orders with a red card.  Triantis sent his second penalty to Nash's left and at last Olympic had a buffer to work with.  Triantis celebrated the goal by lifting his shirt which attracted a yellow card from the referee.

Three minutes later the game was wrapped up when Ramsay popped a cross from the left that was nicely met with a first time shot from Hartshorn that scooted past Nash's right hand to make it 3-0.

With a healthy lead and a player advantage Olympic started to enjoy their football by offering some enterprising moves which did much to lift the team's confidence.  There was one major chance that was botched in the 86th.  Substitute Marino Musumeci broke the offside trap and had acres of space in front of him.  He cut inside from the right flank and beat the last defender in the process.  He had fellow substitute Matthew Mayora to his left but Musumeci elected to shoot but the shot was too easy for Nash to contain.  A simple pass to Mayora would have got the scoreboard attendant moving again.

Triantis' game went from a memorable one to a Mayora one - an illegal challenge forced Stibinger to dish out a second card to Triantis who started walking before the red card was shown.  The Olympic fans still gave Triantis a warm round of applause as he entered the player tunnel. 

As Stibinger blew full time the smiles were back on the Olympic faces both in the crowd and on the pitch.  The victory lifted Olympic into 5th spot with a game in hand, but more significantly was the importance of the win in the context of the season - something that Michael Cindric touched on after the game:

"The boys have been trying to fire in the last couple of weeks, last week in particular we were very unlucky. We had a few good chances and the goals we have copped have been all from our mistakes.  We'll try to eliminate those and also the boys are getting hungry.  This win could be our turning point".

Sydney Olympic travel to Edensor Park to take on Sydney United who are coming off a big 2-1 win over Manly United.

SYDNEY OLYMPIC 3 (Triantis 58' (pen) 68' (pen), Hartshorn 71') defeated APIA LEICHHARDT TIGERS 0 at Belmore Sports Ground

SYDNEY OLYMPIC: Michael Herbet, Emmanuel Zunino (67' Carlo Musumeci), Mirko Jurilj, Michael Cindric, Nathan Sherlock, Iain Ramsay, Milorad Simonovic, Chris Triantis, Anthony Hartshorn, Anthony Doumanis (75' Matthew Mayora), Paul Wither (84' Marino Musumeci)