It wasn’t easy, but the Wollongong Wolves have broken through for their first win in four matches.
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A 92nd minute Nick Montgomery winner handed the Wolves a 2-1 victory over Sutherland in what was a tense affair
The win moves the Wolves to within one point of the top five and coach Jacob Timpano was ecstatic to see his side finally break through for victory after a number of frustrating weeks.
“It's a tight competition, every week's important, and nothing but three points today was going to be good enough for us, we got that in the end,” Timpano said.
“It was thoroughly deserved, there's been games where we've come away with nothing, but today [Sunday] we came away with the win, which was thoroughly deserved.”
The Wolves controlled proceedings for much of the match, but it was Sutherland who opened the scoring in the 46th minute after the home side made a sloppy start to the second half.
The goal came after Wollongong dominated the opening stanza, with a number of chances denied by Sutherland goalkeeper Ryan Norval.
“We conceded the goal early in the second half, but the boys hung in there. We had the wind in the second half, we should've won it earlier than we did, but credit to both teams, they were tough conditions out there and I’m glad we got the three points.”
The second half was a more even affair than the first, with both teams having multiple near misses. Down a goal, the Wolves worked hard to regain control of the match, with Jordan Nikolovski leveling the scores with a goal against the run of play in the 61st minute.
Playing in his run-on debut, Nikolovski found himself one on one with the goalkeeper after latching onto a brilliant pass on the counter attack. He made no mistake, lobbing the ball past Norval.
From there, both teams got into the arm wrestle, with the ball moving from end to end of the field.
The Wolves had the pick of the chances, with three good shots in the final five minutes, only to be denied on each occasion.
Montgomery was not to be denied, however, and it was clear in the Wolves celebrations a pressure valve had been released.
Finally, after week’s of controlling matches and struggling to convert chances into goals, the Wolves had secured a victory.
“Our execution in front of goal has been the problem all year, we've missed too many chances.,” Timpano said.