Olympic and Lions were forced to settle for a share of the spoils following a thrilling 3-3 draw at Lions Stadium on Saturday night.
Daniel Leck grabbed a brace while Jez Lofthouse also got on the scoresheet for Olympic as they played out their first ever NPL Queensland draw against Lions.
Despite starting brightly and coming close in the first half through Leck and Shannon Brady Olympic went into the break two goals down after the home side struck through Ethan Docherty and Jordan Farina.
Lofthouse pulled a goal back for Olympic in the 49th minute when he headed home a dinked Leck ball at the back post.
Leck then levelled the scores at 2-2 when he brought down and delicately brought down and finished a sublime Danny Driver through ball in the 66th minute.
The home side had the chance to reinstate their lead in the 72nd minute after being awarded a penalty for a Jean-Philippe Lasm foul Alex Fiechtner inside the area, however Lachlan Hunter was equal to the task saving Farina’s effort from the penalty spot.
Lions looked to have found a winner in the 86th minute when Max Mikkola fired a first time strike into the top corner from distance.
Not to be outdone, Olympic came up with a spectacular strike of their own, Leck rifling a stunning volley from the top of the box into the back of the net in the 93rd minute to grab a point from a thrilling 3-3 draw.
Speaking post-match, Olympic Head Coach, Ben Cahn said he was proud of the character shown by his players in Saturday’s fight back.
“It’s hard to process it all right now, but my feeling is we did enough to win the game,” Cahn said.
“I’m very proud of how we played but obviously disappointed with the goals we conceded, especially the first two.
“The boys showed excellent character to come back from 2-0 down, unfortunately we had to do it again to get to 3-3.
“I’m obviously pleased we found a way but we’re all disappointed that we didn’t come away with three points.
“We’ll go away and review the game and keep working hard to improve and adapt to the challenges in front of us every week.
“The players have been great in training the last couple of weeks, there’s a real hunger there, we’re very close to getting it right and when we do I’m very confident we can put a big run together.”
Focus for Olympic now turns to next Sunday’s home clash against Brisbane Strikers at Goodwin Park (6pm KO).
MATCH DETAILS
NPL Queensland 2021 – Round 7: Lions FC vs Olympic FC
Lions Stadium, Richlands
Saturday, 1 May
Lions FC – 3 (Ethan DOCHERTY 16’, Jordan FARINA 45+5’, Max MIKKOLA 86’)
Olympic FC – 3 (Jez LOFTHOUSE 49’, Daniel LECK 66’, 93’)