Olympic went a goal down after two and a half minutes to Three Kings’ standout Brazilian playmaker Luiz Del Monte but a pinpoint header from Mickey Malivuk brought the Greeks level after 29 minutes before de Gregorio’s spot kick sent the 86-year-old trophy to the capital.
Victorious captain Mikey Halikias – who was team mascot as an eight-year-old for Olympic’s only other final appearance in 1994 – said winning the 86 year old Chatham Cup more than made up for the disappointment of missing out of league honours a week ago.
“It’s huge,” said Halikias, “At the end of the day we’ve won a trophy and that’s something that Olympic doesn’t do very often and it’s a great way to pay back all those supporters who travelled up today and have been behind us all season.”
Halikias paid tribute to the way his side bounced back from last week’s disspointment and reserved a special mention for man of the match Raf de Gregorio.
“To come up here and step up again is really satisfying.”
“The first 15 or 20 minutes we were under the cosh but after that it was all on and we started to find our rhythm. When Raf de Gregorio plays for us we’re outstanding.”
Three Kings, who play in the Northern League’s first division, and had knocked over four Premier League sides from around the country to reach their first final, looked set for a fifth top-level scalp when an impassioned start earned them an an early lead against the Central League runners-up.
Glen Eie’s slide-rule pass took Sam Mathews to the corner of the Olympic box, and a clever back heel from the semi final hero left Del Monte free to slot the Aucklanders into an early lead.
Olympic almost replied immediately when a quickly taken Raf De Gregorio free kick rattled the crossbar with Three Kings goalkeeper Greg Walters still setting his defensive wall.
But Three Kings had the better of the early passages, with Del Monte finding plenty of space in front of Olympic’s defence.
Twice he caused Olympic’s defence some heart palpitations but after drawing out goalkeeper Nick van Hattum on the first break his centred pass missed its mark, and then a few minutes later a lack of support from his teammates left Del Monte with a lack of options.
Olympic’s dominance at set pieces eventually got them back on level terms when Malivuk found space from a Jimmy Haidakis and had the presence of mind to direct his header downward to bounce it over a despairing Walters.
De Gregorio was denied by the woodwork a second time, this time seeing a 35th minute header slam back off the upright.
Daniel Finlay almost netted a equaliser eight minutes from fulltime but his first time volley skimmed over the crossbar and onto the roof of net.
There were more nervy moments for Olympic in the dying minutes with van Hattum just clawing away a cross off the head of towering substitute Jesse van Kekum, and then Andre Sherard just failing to connect with a miscued shot from Sam Mathews a few minutes later.
Three Kings threw everything – including goalkeeper Walters – at Olympic in injury time, but coach Paul Marshall acknowledged it wasn’t enough to pull off the victory his club wanted to honour respected club stalwart Ken Sargent who passed away Sunday,
“We weren’t at our best today. They had the best of the first half but we created a few chances in the second but you’ve got to take them at this level.”
“It’s been a great season. Unfortunately we weren’t able to win the Cup for Ken but he did get to see his side win through to the final.”
82nd Chatham Cup Final
Three Kings United 1 (Luiz Del Monte 3)
Wellington Olympic 2 (Miroslav Malivuk 29, Raf de Gregorio 75-pen)
Sunday 20 September, 2009
North Harbour Stadium
Referee: Jamie Cross
Three Kings United: GK-Greg Walters, 2-Joel Mathews (Captain), 3-Tavis Gravatt (15-Jesse Van Kekem 80), 4-Alejandro Blanco, 5-Andre Sherard, 6-Hugo Littlejohn, 7-Luiz Del Monte, 10-Stuart Hogg, 12-Sam Mathews, 17-Jacob Mathews (11-Jesse Scott 8), 20-Glenn Eie (18-Daniel Finlay 58).
Substitutes not used: RGK-Daniel Court, 13-Daniel Eisenhut, 16-Astley Lee, 19-Jeremy Cooper.
Coach: Paul Marshall
Wellington Olympic: 1-Nicholas Van Hattum (GK), 3-Scott Robson, 6-Raffaele De Gregorio, 7-Mikey Halikias (Captain), 8-George Barbarouses, 9-Barry Lewis, 10- Jimmy Haidakis, 11-Miroslav Malivuk, 12-Ryan Edwards, 13-Chaz Lawrence, 15-John Carras, 21-Anthony Neonakis.
Substitutes not used: 2-Jared Curtis, 4-Jamie O’Connor, 19-Adam Church, RGK-Mario Hatzilamprou.
Co-coaches: Craig Hopkins & Simon George
Cautions: Jesse Scott (TKU), Barry Lewis (OLY), Ryan Edwards (OLY), George Barbarouses (OLY)
Jack Batty Trophy (Man of the match): Raf de Gregorio (Olympic)
Story courtesy of NZF Media
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