By Peter Kambounias

Sydney Olympic and Bankstown City shared the points in a 1-1 draw at Belmore Sports Ground.  Olympic once again failed to take it's chances and allowed it's opponents to take something from the game.

Bankstown played the last thirty seven minutes of the game with ten men and the last minute plus three injury time minutes with nine men following red cards to Phillip Makrys and George Nohra respectively.

Despite the dismissal of Makrys it was Bankstown that had maintained the initiative of the second half which started right from the kick off after coach Peter Tsekenis absolutely blasted his players during the half time break.

Tsekenis had seen his side being totally outplayed in the first half with Olympic deservedly taking the lead with a contender for goal-of-the-season by Peter Zorbas.

Olympic took to the wet field under rainy skies with more changes to the side that had lost at Sutherland.  Missing were Paul Wither and Iain Ramsay.  Their spots were taken by Anthony Doumanis and Marino Musumeci.

The home side seized immediate control and had it's first corner just ninety seconds in.  Chris Triantis hit the corner and Emmanuel Zunino climbed highest to try to connect with his head but he only managed to swarm all over diminutive Bankstown keeper Zlatko Josevski.

Bankstown nearly put through their own net in the 7th when Brett Studman chested the ball back to his keeper but Josevski slipped and managed to get a glove to the ball and pushed it away for a corner.  Josevski would slip up several more times throughout the game.

All the early moves were Olympic's and the side had full control of the midfield with the defence easily accounting for the limited Bankstown forays into the last third.

In the 8th Olympic broke free and Mirko Jurilj delivered a deft pass to Siraj Al Tall.  The Jordanian international touched on for the pint-sized Anthony Doumanis and he burst towards the penalty area only to slide right to Marino Musumeci who let rip with a first timer that was low but straight at Josevski.

Musumeci had a volley in the 12th that scooted past the left post after good work by Zunino and Triantis.   At that stage it was the Zunino and Doumanis show.  Nearly every move involved the pair and they were closely followed by Anthony Hartshorn who was at his usual hard working self.  In the middle Triantis and Zorbas were creating and diffusing, while the back line were untroubled in the first periods of the game.

Michael Cindric bobbed up for his usual set piece header in the 21st - this time off a Zorbas free kick, and the home fans had a minor scare a minute later when the Bankstown side managed to hit the crossbar with the near side linesman (the same linesman who correctly disallowed Olympic's goal at Sutherland on the previous weekend) signalling for offside.

In the 23rd Zorbas and Makrys clashed in a midfield battle for the ball - Makrys had clearly taken Zorbas out.  Zorbas reacted to the challenge and referee Matthew Gilette gave both a yellow card.

Four minutes later Olympic pounced on a Bankstown defensive error - the ball falling for Zorbas who pounded a low blistering shot at goal only for Josevski to parry with his legs and his team-mates managed to clear.  Bankstown had commenced their comeback into the game control stakes.

With just a minute left of the first half Olympic took the lead that the team was worthy of.  Zunino and Hartshorn interchanged some short passes with Hartshorn fouled but the ball fell to Zunino in the left pocket.  Referee Gilette could have given Olympic the free kick but waved play-on.  Zunino jinked his run slightly inward towards the railway-end goal and slid a pass into the oncoming Zorbas around 25 metres out.  Zorby ran onto the ball and absolutely sizzled a first timer that zipped into the top right corner of the net.  The goal was one of world class.

But all Olympic's dominance ended with the half time break.  It often happens when the break comes at the wrong time, and for Olympic it certainly proved to be so.

Bankstown quickly got on level terms when Robert Milevski found himself with no one in front of him except Michael Herbet in goals and Milevski fired his low shot across Herbet and into the bottom right corner of the goal.

Everything was going Bankstown's way until they were reduced to ten men.  In the 53rd minute Siraj Al Tall went on a direct run and had his jersey pulled by Makrys just before Al Tall ran into the penalty area.  Referee Gilette had no option but to pull out the yellow and red cards to dismiss Makrys from the arena.

Olympic immediately got the pendulum swinging it's way with chances to Hartshorn in the 60th and again a minute later - both failed to trouble the scoreboard.  However the game was there for Olympic's taking.

Josevski was called to action again in the 75th when Doumanis found himself all alone at the far post and he headed a deep cross from the left - the header beating Josevski but not the scrambling Bankstown defence who cleared off the line.  Al Tall too was denied by more desperate defending by the away side just four minutes later.

The series of chances continued for Olympic.  In the 83rd substitute James Kovas sent his low curler over the right corner of the goal frame and Doumanis did the same in the 40th off a close-range pass by substitute Matthew Mayora on the right side goal-line.

Milevski nearly made it 2-1 to the visitors via a free kick that went just wide of the goal.

In the final minute of normal time Bankstown's George Nohra went for a late and dangerous tackle that had referee Gilette pulling out a straight red.  Olympic had failed to capitalise on ten men for most of the half and only enjoyed eleven-on-nine for all of four minutes.

Olympic's poor finishing in front of goal had haunted the team yet again and the draw put a dent in the club's ambitions to finish in the top three whereas the draw made Bankstown's task of making the finals very difficult indeed.

SYDNEY OLYMPIC 1 (Zorbas 44') drew with BANKSTOWN CITY 1 (Mileski 46') at Belmore Sports Ground

SYDNEY OLYMPIC: Michael Herbet, Emmanuel Zunino (55' Carlo Musumeci), Mirko Jurilj, Michael Cindric, Nathan Sherlock, Peter Zorbas, Chris Triantis, Anthony Doumanis, Anthony Hartshorn, Siraj Al Tall (67' James Kovas), Marino Musumeci (82' Matthew Mayora)