A dominant first-half performance from Wollongong Olympic on the wet surface of PCYC was enough for the hosts to walk away with the three points after a lacklustre second half.
Early chances from the 2024 grand final champions put Shellharbour on notice. Chris Price fired a header at the bottom corner, forcing a quick save from Nikodin Matic and a quick follow-up from Nicholas Littler called upon the keeper again.
Kyle Jackson appeared to be brought down in the box as he tried to shoot in the sixth minute however, the referee waved away the appeal.
Shellharbour had their first decent chance of the match in the 20th minute after a strike from the edge of the penalty area from Jacob Debian sailed just past the top right corner.
Later in the half, Jackson squared the ball across the face of the goal as it bobbled over the Shellharbour defence to Shoji Mori, who fired the ball over the bar, wasting a chance for Olympic.
Just minutes later [30’] Mori made up for his blunder as he gave Olympic the lead. Lucas Stergiou fired the ball into the penalty area from the right to Jackson, who could not find his touch before bobbling the ball through to Mori, who made no mistake.
It was not long before Olympic extended their lead through Littler as he scored a header from a floated free kick off the halfway line taken by Guy Knight as the half came to a close.
At the break, Tetsunari Nishimura was substituted on and replaced Jackson.
Nishimura took his time to get into the game, but after being through on goal for a one-on-one, the chance went begging as he rolled it past the far post.
Shellharbour’s second half can be described as close, but not close enough, as constant counterattacks lacking the final touch came to be their worst enemy.
The match concluded 2-0 in what was a dominant display from Olympic as they jump Shellharbour on the ladder into second place.
Olympic will travel to Terry Reserve to face the Albion Park White Eagles on Sunday, while Shellharbour will host the Blueys twice this week — first on Tuesday in the Bampton Cup, then again on Saturday for their league clash.
Report by Jack Naumovski
File Photo
