It will be the premiers versus the most in-form team for the Championship after both “Hellas” and Oakleigh emerged victorious in two thrilling, hard-fought semi-finals.
South Melbourne’s success guaranteed a blockbuster all-Greek affair to decide the Victorian NPL Championship, with Port Melbourne’s season coming to an end after falling just short against the Cannons.
The premiers downed Green Gully 1-0 at home on Sunday afternoon to keep their aspirations for recording a double well and truly alive.
Alun Webb put “Hellas” ahead after 56 minutes of play and his side managed to hold firm and protect this marginal lead to the very end, advancing into the Final.
Oakleigh went into extra time for the second week in a row in their 1-2 away victory against Port Melbourne on Saturday night to continue their late surge for silverware.
The Sharks opened the scoring, thanks to a strike from Chris Duggan (55′), before Joseph Knowles found a vital equaliser (74′) to send the match into extra time.
Knowles stepped up once more with a huge goal in the 109th minute in what ultimately proved to be the deciding moment of the fixture.
This helped Oakleigh to their third successive victory after their penalties win with Heidelberg last weekend and their magnificent upset over A-League giants Sydney FC in the Australia Cup Quarter-Finals.
Northern NSW
Newcastle Olympic just missed out on the play-offs via goal difference despite a 1-0 home triumph over Weston Workers in the final round of the season, with the Hamilton-based club finishing in fifth with 34 points.
QLD
Olympic FC pulled off a miraculous 2-3 away upset on Saturday night against the premiers, Queensland Lions, scoring a winner at the death to book their place in the Championship Final.
It was a huge back-and-forth fixture, with Shannon Brady finding the back of the net for the visitors (29′) before Alex Fiechtner equalised (40′).
Olympic went ahead once more through Takeru Okada (49′) but it was again cancelled out, this time by Andrew Pengelly on the hour mark.
Zachary Kierpal became the hero of the evening for the travellers, scoring in the 90+2nd minute to knock out the premiers in front of their home supporters and keep his team’s hopes of a title intact.
WA
A late winner helped Floreat Athena in their home win over Perth RedStar on Saturday evening to secure an automatic place in the Championship Final.
The premiers fell behind early, thanks to Daryl Nicol’s strike (22′), but they soon recovered and drew level via Bayley Brown-Montgomery (32′).
Robert Petkov completed the comeback with a goal in the dying minutes of the match (90+3′) to give his club a week’s rest as they aim for the double.
ACT
Canberra Olympic managed to bag a 0-1 away success against Monaro Panthers in the 20th round on Saturday evening to greatly boost their odds of play-offs football, keeping them in fourth with 26 points, two ahead of the next closest side.
TAS
Olympia Warriors beat Glenorchy Knights 3-1 at home in their 20th round clash on Friday night to end their eight-match losing streak, taking them to nine points while still being seventh (second-last).
