Sunday afternoon at Belmore Sports Ground was perfect for football. No wind, not too hot and a perfect pitch led to a great derby match between old rivals Olympic and West Sydney Berries.
The Olympic boys came out firing as they knew they had to win or have to explain themselves to the President George Giannaros who has given much to resurrect the club and four straight losses did nothing for the cause.
Cedric Ramirez had two chances early in the 4th minute and the 11th minute but could not capitalise on his half-chances. The ex-Lorient FC striker was a welcome face to a flat Olympic forward line in the last few weeks.
The big home crowd was almost stunned in the 18th minute with a floating cross to the far post catching out the ex-Northern Spirt and ex-North Queensland Fury goalkeeper on his debut for Olympic.
On the 42′ Ian Ramsey buried his chance past the hapless Hamich McLean to open the scoring for Olympic.
Two minutes later a huge miss kick by Daniel Clifford was met by a bomb finish from Olympic captain and crowd favorite Mathew Mayora.
The second half the Berries knew they had to do something and they came out firing. Kosta Lagoudakis was inspirational for the Berries in the centre of the park with balls being sprayed to Dimitri Zakilas and Jess Pinto upfront and out wide.
The ex-Newcastle Jets winger was a menace for Olympic along with Dimitri Zakilas but they could not capitalize on the possession in the second half.
Phil Makrys and Andre Gumprecht did the job along with Athnoy Doumanis to stop any further attacks by winning the middle of the park for the remainder of the match.
The win was much overdue for the Olympic fans with the revolution of the club continuing off the park with countless of old NSL fans coming back to the club after a few years away and all having nothing but good things to say about the standard of the NSW Premier League.
Match Stats:
Sydney Olympic 2 (Iain Ramsey 42’, Matthew Mayora 45’)
West Sydney Berries 0
Crowd: 1169 (Official)
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