Oakleigh Cannons and Port Melbourne Sharks have played out a frustrating 0-0 draw in the NPL season-opener on Thursday night.
Neither of the two sides managed to produce the cutting edge in front of goal, with the Sharks perhaps the more disappointed of the two as a crowd in excess of 1,000 packed into Jack Edwards Reserve to witness the first competitive hit out from the two sides in 2016.
Both teams had been prominent with their off-season recruitment as they each fielded five debutants in their starting XIs, with Port pair Lambros Honos and Bonel Obradovic lining up against their former club.
The first major opportunity fell to the hosts in the eighth minute when an overhead ball from the returning Dominic D’Angelo split the Sharks defence to open up Goran Zoric, however the winger flashed his shot agonisingly wide of the post much to the relief of the onrushing goalkeeper Stjepan Gal.
The visitor’s best opportunities in the opening twenty minutes came via free-kicks with both James Riccobene and Alan Mulcahy seeing their efforts sail safely into the hands of Cannons custodian John Honos.
A timid first half failed to produce many goal-scoring opportunities with a Lambros Honos right-footed shot from just outside the box seeing his brother John make a another comfortable save.
Port came out of the half-time break the more eager of the two sides although Oakleigh had the first shot on goal when some neat play from Dean Piemonte saw him set-up Zoric who directed the ball into the path of midfielder Ioannis Georgopoulos but the new signing saw his little dink beaten away by the alert Gal.
Dusan Bosnjak was brought on by the Cannons on the hour mark with the aim of having an impact while Port brought on youngster Erhan Yalaz who was another Shark to come face-to-face with his former employers on the night.
The visitors took on the ascendency from there onwards with Honos and fellow new signing David Stirton flashing efforts off-target before the latter came closest to opening the scoring when his powerful, perfectly timed volley went inches away from giving his side the lead.
However it wasn’t all one-way traffic and a collision in the away defence saw Jacob Eliopoulos and Alan Kearney collide allowing Bosnjak to send a spectacular half-volley dipping just over the bar.
With the seconds on the clock ticking down, the energetic Yalaz made a frantic dash into the area from the left-hand side, beating his man before squaring the ball across goal only for Lambros Honos to strike the ball onto the post before seeing his follow-up effort deflected out of play.
The resulting corner failed to materialise into a shot on goal with referee Chris Hope blowing his whistle to signal the end of a tiring ninety where the failure of each side to convert their few openings proved pivotal to the proceedings.
Cannons joint-Head Coach Con Tangalakis was content with the point adding that “it could have gone either way and after the opening ten minutes we had the momentum of play and were on top of things moving the ball around quite effectively.”
“In the second half both teams had a couple of chances, Port’s were probably more threatening but look in the end I thought a draw was a fair result and one from which we can take a lot of positives from heading into the next game.”
His Sharks counterpart Eric Vassiliadis was a little less satisfied.
“I think we can agree on the fact that the first-half was your typical round 1 clash where neither team could build on any momentum or structure,” he said.
“For us to come here and boss that second half is certainly a positive but we’re not happy with draws as if we’re able to control a game like that, we need to find a way to win which we failed to do.”
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Oakleigh Cannons: John Honos (GK), Thomas Lakic, Steve Pantelidis, Aron Wilford, John Black, Domenic D’Angelo, Ioannis Georgopoulos (Dusan Bosnjak 59’), Corey Slevin (Ross Frame 78’), Goran Zoric, Dean Piemonte, Dimitri Hatzimouratis
Unused Substitute(s): Evan Kraloglou (GK), Steven Topalovic, Abdalla Okud
Yellow Card(s): Slevin 64′, Pantelidis 79′
Red Card(s): None
Port Melbourne Sharks: Stjepan Gal (GK), Bonel Obradovic (Erhan Yalaz 62’), Jacob Eliopoulos, George Krommidas, James Riccobene, Alan Mulcahy, Alan Kearney, Lambros Honos, Ryan Oppermann, Jamie de Abreu (Dennis Koutroulis 81’), David Stirton
Unused Substitute(s): Michael Stark (GK), Trent Manicas
Yellow Card(s): None
Red Card(s): None
Image: Supplied by Oakleigh Cannons