Tuesday, 29 October 2002 12:00 AM
In an attacking match that could have gone either way, 21 year old Nick Tolios was South Melbourne’s outstanding player against Wollongong in Orange last weekend.
South Melbourne drew 0 – 0 to the Wolves in front of 3,286 the rounds third highest crowd. It was end to end stuff, on a pitch which was 15 yards larger than the length of Bob Jane Stadium. Both teams played positive football and entertained the soccer fans of Orange with their attacking strategies.
Playing in his 20th match at the Club, young defender Nick Tolios withstood the Wollongong forwards and could have scored his first National Soccer League goal. Tolios who played for Ethnikos Asteras in the Greek First Division, had two headers cleared off the goal line and took a striking free kick in the first half which was too hot to handle from Wollongong goalkeeper, Andrew Crew’s.
“I headered the ball towards goal, which deflected onto the cross bar by a Wollongong defender, which then hit the ground and his chest and was then cleared”.
“Our two main aims were to win the game but keep a clean sheet in the process. It was a tiring trip and not the ideal way to prepare for a match, but in the circumstances we did very well and at the end of the day, a draw was a fair result”, says Tolios.
Paul Trimboli, Steve Iosifidis and Vaughan Coveny, did not aggravate their injuries. Iosifidis was a late replacement for Fausto De Amicis who was suffering from a migraine and had to stay back at the hotel.
“Iosifidis did a great job covering for De Amicis at left back with such late notice. All three players will be better for the run. We had more shots at goal and corners and it was a better performance on what has been reported”, says Wright
Coveny and Iosifidis played full games while Paul Trimboli was substituted in the 60th minute.
Other highlights included a narrow miss from Trimboli who got onto a parried Tolios freekick. Coveny who’s free kick went just wide of the post and Michael Baird who came off the bench to combine well with Peter Buljan. Baird sliced past two defenders and pinpointed his cross to Buljan who’s header narrowly missed the target.
In other team news Patrick Kisnorbo and Steve Panopoulos are still a 50% chance of playing this Sunday against league leaders Olympic Sharks, while Zeljko Susa is still awaiting his clearance from his former Club Hadjuk Split.