Manly United ensured Sydney Olympic coach Pat Marando will continue to walk the coaching tightrope this week after a pulsating 2-1 win at Cromer Park on Sunday night.
In one of the most entertaining NSW Premier League matches this season, Robbie Cattanach’s winner in the 90’ minute handed Phil Moss’ men their first three points at home in 2010.
Sydney Olympic had plenty of chances early on to open the scoring, but a lack of guile in front of goal and some brilliant work between the sticks from Manly stand in custodian Rhyss Keane kept them at bay.
Matthew Mayora in particular had an evening he will want to forget.
While always looking dangerous, the one time Perth Glory striker missed a hatful of chances, the first one after just 3’ minutes.
He was ruing his luck in the 7’ minute when Keane spilt a ball but he snatched at the shot, hitting it well wide of the target despite having the whole goal to aim at.
In the 11’ minute he did manage to beat Keane but saw his effort cleared off the line by Sean Bowden, giving the impression it was going to be one of those nights for the boys from Belmore.
Incredibly Mayora was denied by Keane a further three times in six minutes before Manly took the lead after 33’ minutes.
After being played in by Andrew Mailer, Joey Gibbs fed Craig Midgley who finished with aplomb at the near post.
Olympic squared things up 8’ minutes later via the boot of Chris Triantis, with the creative midfielder forcing home a loose ball that Keane spilt in the area.
On the stroke of the break Keane atoned for his error after denying Andre Gumprecht, who rocketed a shot towards goal after some clever interchanging of passes between Mayora and Triantis.
In the 46’ minute Manly should have taken the lead via Chris Gallo, but somehow the Olympic defence denied him from point blank range.
Mailer then saw a penalty claim waved play on by referee Sandro Perticarini , before Keith Shevlin tested the palms of Zaim Zaneli after 53’ minutes.
In classic end to end football, Olympic substitute Iain Ramsay almost gave his team the lead on the hour mark, only to be denied by Keane.
He tested the Manly defence again on 66’ minutes after picking up a loose ball from Brad Groves, but saw his shot blocked by the retreating Joel Grenell.
The Sydney FC National Youth League player of the year then rattled the crossbar after 77’ minutes with Keane beaten as both teams searched for the winner.
Crowd favourite Robbie Cattanach should have given his team the lead with 12’ minutes remaining but volleyed over, before grabbing the three points in yet another Manly United late show.
In a mad scramble in the box from a Mailer corner, Cattanach reacted quickest to Joey Gibbs’ cleared effort, forcing the ball home from inside the six yard box.
A relieved Moss was happy with the second half performance dished up from his men:
“We came out strongly and were patient,’’ he said.
“Overall we deserved the result……both teams had plenty of chances to win it…..we left it late, but I was always confident.
“Guys like Joey Schirripa and Robbie Cattanach haven’t played much football this season but were very good for us.
“Rhyss Keane was also good….he stood up when given a chance and impressed me.’’
Sydney Olympic boss Pat Marando knows he will now be in the firing line after Olympic slumped to their third loss in five games:
“We were the far better side but didn’t take our chances,’’ he said.
“Manly took their chances to good luck to them.
“A few things didn’t go our way, but that’s football.”
Courtesy of the NSW Football Federation
