Newcastle Olympic dug deep to beat Warners Bay 2-1 in Newcastle Herald Women's Premier League at John Street Oval on Sunday after being reduced to 10 players for the second weekend in a row.
The defending champions played the last 30 minutes of the round-eight clash without new recruit Elise Mamanu-Gray after she was red-carded for a challenge on Warners Bay centre-back Kristy Martin.
The visitors held a 1-0 lead at the time. Jade McAtamney made the most of a Panthers defensive error in the opening minute of the game to bury the ball into the net.
The scoreline remained unchanged until Warners Bay were finally rewarded for their attacking efforts when substitute Lilly-Jane Babic streaked into the box to meet Elodie Dagg's through ball and slotted into the bottom left corner with only goalkeeper Ally Boertje to beat in the 84th minute.
But Olympic rallied to strike back through livewire Georgia Amess, who was in the goalmouth in the 89th minute to meet a cross from Georgia Little and finish from close range.
The win moved second-placed Olympic to 21 points and widened the gap on the third-placed Panthers (13) to eight. The visitors were without suspended striker Jemma House, who had been red-carded for two yellow card offences early in a 3-2 win over Adamstown in round seven.
It was a far closer scoreline than the 5-1 drubbing Olympic dished out when the two sides met in round one but for Warners Bay coach Craig Atkins the outcome on Sunday was "hard to take".
"I thought we played some really good football but you just can't give two soft goals away - that's killing us," Atkins said.
"We spoke about it before the game and tried to tidy that area up. If we want to keep moving onwards and upwards, we can't be letting goals in like that. We were right in the game and possibly could have won it."
Charlestown surged to 12 points and fourth place with back-to-back wins from a weekend double-header against Mid Coast.
Azzurri were sixth before the weekend but beat Mid Coast 3-1 at Lisle Carr Oval on Saturday in a rescheduled round-one match then 2-0 in Taree on Sunday. The results left Mid Coast (4) in seventh.
Unbeaten leaders Broadmeadow improved to 22 with a 4-0 win over Maitland at Magic Park on Friday night while the Magpies (9) slipped from fourth to sixth.
There were six different scorers as Adamstown (10) maintained fifth place with a 6-0 victory over last-placed New Lambton (0) on Saturday night.
Results: Broadmeadow 4 (Ash Brodigan 2, Lucy Jerram, own goal) beat Maitland 0 at Magic Park on Friday night. Half-time: Magic 4-0.
Charlestown Azzurri 3 (Tamara Nash 2, Ellie Withers) beat Mid Coast 1 (Emily Knott) at Lisle Carr Oval on Saturday. Half-time: Azzurri led 1-0.
Adamstown 6 (Molly Salvador, Leia Puxty, Ella Spicer, Kimmy Trappett, Kiarra Lewis, Belle Hewitt) beat New Lambton 0 at Lake Macquarie Football Facility on Saturday night. Half-time: Adamstown led 4-0.
Newcastle Olympic 2 (Jade McAtamney, Georgia Amess) beat Warners Bay 1 (Lilly-Jane Babic) at John Street Oval on Sunday. Half-time: Olympic led 1-0.
Charlestown Azzurri 2 (Jess Gentle, own goal) beat Mid Coast 0 at Taree Zone Field on Sunday. Half-time: Azzurri led 1-0.
Points: Broadmeadow 22, Olympic 21, Warners Bay 13, Azzurri 12, Adamstown 10, Maitland 9, Mid Coast 4, New Lambton 0.
