With all the commotion during the week surrounding the ownership of the club UTS Olympic bounced back and defeated a luckless Melbourne Knights outfit 2-1. Back at Belmore Oval while the Sydney Football Stadium is being resurfaced, 4,821 hardy souls turned out for a match that saw a much needed three points go to the home side and the sending-off of former Socceroo Alan Davidson.
Olympic came out out of the blocks well and after 11 minutes were awarded a penalty by referee Eddie Lennie after the Knights goalkeeper Joe Didulica was deemed to be holding the ball longer than six seconds. From the free kick Walter Ardone rolled the ball to Eric Hristodoulou who hit a fierce shot to the right of the wall and into the net. 1-0 to Olympic and six minutes later the side were 2-0 up when Hussein Jomaa crossed from the left to find Brett Emerton all alone outside the box and he fired a shot which cracked under the bar and into the net.
The Knights looked a little better after the second goal and got into gear a couple of times, only to be denied by some scrambling Olympic defence and Olympic goalkeeper Bob Catlin. The closest call was a Tommy Pondeljak volley in the 25th minute that hit the woodwork, but at halftime the score remained 2-0.
It took 21 minutes for the Knights to pull one back in the second half. Substitute Ice Kutlesovski who had only been on the ground 3 minutes put away an attempted clearance by an Olympic defender and the score was 2-1. The real turning point of the game occurred a few minutes later. Veteran sweeper Alan Davidson mistimed a clearance which ended up at the feet of nippy striker Norman Tome. As Tome went to race away with the ball Davidson lunged at the striker and pulled him down by the shirt just outside the box. To the hoots and hollers of the Olympic crowd referee Lennie issued Davidson with a red card and that was that. The ensuing free kick saw Olympic go close but desperate defending saw the Knights clear.
The last ten minutes were frantic as the Knights tried to push forward but poor finishing by their forwards on a couple of occassions denied the team an equaliser and the score remained 2-1 to the homeside. For Olympic they were well served by midfielder Walter Ardone and new signing Evangelos Petratos who has added some much needed steel to the Olympic defence with Eric Hristodoulou was lively in midfield. For the Knights goalkeeper Joe Didulica was outstanding and if wasn't for his contribution Olympic would have most definately won by more, while forwards Pondeljak and Kutlesovski created many chances but were unable to finish them off.