FOOTBALL
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South Coast Wolves secured their first competition point of the season in a 1-1 draw with Sydney Olympic at WIN Stadium on Sunday.
Returning to the scene of their 5-0 capitulation to Blacktown City a fortnight ago, the Wolves defence showed few signs of the frailties which haunted them on that day.
Skipper Jacob Timpano marshalled the back four well as his troops showed character to come from a goal down to secure a draw.
The home side came out of the blocks well, but fell behind in the 29th minute when Dimitri Hatzimouratis finished precisely at the back post.
Brayden Sorge got in behind the Wolves defence and whipped in a cross which was initially deflected by Daniel Collison but only as far as Hatzimouratis.
The clinical finish was in stark contrast to the Wolves who lacked direction throughout much of the first half.
Wolves coach Richard Lloyd recognised the deficiency at the break and substituted Joey Lavalle with Peter Simonoski.
"I was a little bit disappointed in Joey. He had a fantastic game last week but just didn't show up for the ball today," Lloyd said. "I just had to make a sub, we were 1-0 down so I couldn't just rest on it."
The Wolves came out after the break firing when Ricky Zucco stole possession and launched an optimistic shot from a tight angle, which was well saved by Paul Henderson in the Olympic goal.
The fiery attacker was in the spotlight shortly after when Troy Danaskos fouled Jack Keating in the box.
Zucco stepped up from 12 yards and made no mistake to square the ledger at 1-1.
The goal seemed to spark Olympic back to life as the visitors created chances through Christos Tomaras and Hatzimouratis.
With 86 minutes gone, Zucco came close to stealing the show with a bullet-like free kick from 40 yards that fizzed by the post.
In the end neither side could come up with a winner, forcing the points to be shared.
"We will take the point," Lloyd said. "We are down the bottom at the moment so points are at a premium and we will take whatever we can get."
"Second half we came out here with a lot more purpose. In the first half we let them have too much ball and we didn't press enough."
Lloyd put the less than spectacular first-half display down to his squad's frenetic pace.
"We rushed too much and we didn't back ourselves," Lloyd said. "We can actually keep the ball and play some good football but we tend to rush and get rid of it way too quickly."