Wollongong United coach Billy Tsovolos has praised Premier League newcomers Helensburgh for their fighting spirit after the Thistle took the challenge up to his side on Saturday.
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In a see-sawing battle, both teams were forced to share the points after playing out a 2-2 stalemate, in the Thistle's first match in the top flight since the 1990s.
Helensburgh had faced one of the toughest assignments in the IPL, travelling to Macedonia Park to take on the reigning premiers on their home turf. However, it was the Thistle who stunned their opponents early, jumping out to a 2-0 lead through Liam Unicomb and Kade Kinsella, despite the hosts dominated possession and territory.
A Rob Watson own goal saw United cut the deficit to 2-1 at halftime, before Kyah Jovanovski's goal shortly after the break rounded out the scoring on Saturday.
While disappointed with the result, Tsovolos was full of praise for the Thistle, who earned promotion after claiming the 2022 District League championship.
"We knew they were going to be a good team, they should have been up in the Premier League two or three years ago. They're at this standard and if you're not at your best, they're going to take points off you. And that's what happened to us today," Tsovolos told the Mercury.
"It's (the result) a bit frustrating, but you've got to give credit to Helensburgh. They came here and they were hungry. But we worked hard and we didn't let them come here and bully us or anything like that. That's the biggest positive for us."
While pleased to walk away with a point, Helensburgh coach Andy Paine was also left disappointed that his side didn't pick up the three points on Saturday.
However, there were still plenty of positives to emerge.
Charlie Jones and Unicomb showed plenty of promise in their front third, and Helensburgh were generally solid right across the board, highlighted by gloveman Jordan Paull making some excellent saves.
The Thistle are also set to bolster their squad in the coming weeks, with captain Vaughan Patterson, recruit Dylan Caton and Blake Currey among their key personnel to not play on Saturday.
"I never want to say I'm happy to settle for a point. The game was in the balance, it was there to be won. I could have chucked some centre-backs on to protect the draw, but I didn't, I put two forwards on," Paine said.
"We never doubted (that we belong), we didn't have anything to prove to ourselves. We're disappointed not to win. But we'll take plenty out of this and we'll get some troops back next week, which will help."
Cringila were the first team to claim points in this year's Premier League campaign after securing a 4-2 win over Coniston in a fiery clash on Friday night, where four red cards were handed out.
In Saturday's other games, Corrimal thrashed Bellambi 4-0, Albion Park beat Tarrawanna 4-1 and Olympic beat South Coast United 3-1, while Port Kembla defeated Bulli 3-2 on Sunday.
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