By Marcus Uhe
A miracle strike from Tom Giannakopoulos helped Dandenong City salvage a point at the death in a Friday night thriller against Green Gully in National Premier League (NPL) Victoria action at the Frank Holohan Soccer Complex.
Trailing 0-1 with six-and-a-half of the seven minutes of stoppage time already played, Jack Webster launched a long ball deep into City’s attacking half, where Kenny Athiu’s deft touch layed the ball at the feet of Giannakopoulos.
Giannakopoulos took a pair of touches to steady himself before firing from the edge of the penalty area and finding the top left corner to level proceedings.
It’s a second goal in as many weeks for Giannakopoulos, who found the back of the net in
City’s last league contest against Moreland City.
Dandenong had trailed for almost the entirety of the contest, having conceded the 8th minute.
Jackson Lino was outmuscled by Adolph Koudakpo in pursuit of a threaded ball down the Green Gully sideline, whose pass across John Hall’s goal found a streaming Mohamed Adam.
With Hall out of position, Adam made no mistake with the tap-in to give the visitors an early advantage.
City’s cross-town rivals, Dandenong Thunder’s four-game undefeated run was broken on Saturday night, with Adam Piddick’s side falling 1-2 to South Melbourne at home.
Aidan Edwards and Deri Corfe combined on the edge of the penalty area to open the scoring for the home side, with Corfe stepping around a defender and taking his chance in a one-on-one with the South Melbourne goalkeeper to give his side an early 1-0 lead.
Dandenong took the lead into the break but lost it early in the second half after conceding a penalty.
Daniel Alessi brought down striker Harrison Sawyer in the 46th minute, who made no mistake from the resulting spot-kick.
The visitors then took the advantage in the 80th minute, with Thunder unable to clear the ball after a cross.
Pierce Clark cleared the first cross from the right-hand side with a towering punch, where a South Melbourne midfielder was waiting on the opposite flank.
Mersim Memeti mistimed his diving header to clear the second cross, resulting in the ball dropping in a cluster of legs and feet, where South Melbourne’s Ross Archibald was the first to make contact, poking the ball home with his right boot.
2-1 in the visitors’ favour was how the scoreline stayed for the remainder of the contest as Thunder dropped critical points at home.
Earlier in the week, Thunder was again unable to hold on to a first-half lead against Oakleigh in a replay of last month’s abandoned fixture, after a stunning freekick from Corfe gave the visitors the early lead.
Fouled roughly 30 yards from goal in the 33rd minute, Corfe took the responsibility of striking the dead ball and hit it perfectly, dodging the wall to the right and finding the side netting in an early contender for goal of the season.
The advantage only lasted a handful of minutes, however, as the Cannons acted quickly to square the ledger.
Pierce Clark made a brilliant save diving low to his right from a long Oakleigh shot, but the rebound fell perfectly for Cannons striker Joe Guest, who made no mistake on the follow.
Thunder held their own under a weight of pressure from the home side, which took double the shots that Dandenong did, with Clark showing his class through a number of saves that diffused any pressure.
Thunder is counting the cost of the result on the injury front, however, losing both midfielder, Gavin De Niese and striker, Jordan Smylie, to injury during the contest.
Smylie injured his hand in an aerial contest late in the first half, while De Niese was carried off the pitch in second-half injury time on a stretcher.
It’s a cruel blow for the experienced midfielder, who was in-line to represent the Sri Lankan national team.
Ninth-placed Thunder head to Port Melbourne on Satruday to tackle Piddick’s former club, Port Melbourne, while sixth-placed City travels to Hume to tackle second-placed Hume City.
