Hellenic wins its first piece of silverware in 2021 by beating Olympic in the Glenti Cup

The blue side of the Glenti Cup celebrating after Hellenic’s 2-0 win over fierce rivals Darwin Olympic

Hellenic's Savvas Trikoilis and Olympic's Mitch Amidy contest a high ball in last night's inaugural Glenti Cup match. Picture: Lou Reeve

THE blue side of the Glenti Cup were celebrating last night after Hellenic won the inaugural game to celebrate the annual Greek festival.

Fist half goals by Paraskos Koum and Junar Gama separated the two sides in front of a 1400-strong crowd at Darwin Football Stadium.

The final minutes were chaotic with Hellenic in control of the match.

Players were penalised for time wasting and Olympic’s Taine Stephensen sent from the ground in extra time for a second yellow card.

Olympic made most of the early running, veteran Red Mitch Amidy coming closest on eight minutes with a thumping shot on an angle crashing into the left upright.

Reds trio Amidy, Christian Mukudju and Djuma Mweze caused a lot of angst among the Blues defence with their hard running and ability to lay the ball off to teammates.

The one constant for Hellenic was goalkeeper Kane McAdam, ironically a former Red, who made a series of crucial saves in the first 45 minutes.

Hellenic should have scored in the 24th minute when Paraskos Koums left foot shot from close range was saved by Reds stopper Themeli Magriplis.

But Koum did better six minutes later when a speculative ground ball from 20 metres beat Magriplis who looked to unsighted behind a wall of defenders.

Four minutes later it was 2-0 when Hellenic’s Junar Gama headed home from close range from a perfectly weighted Sulav Maskey cross.

Olympic’s defence left him unmarked and paid the consequence when Gama’s header bent the back of the net.

Olympic went close to equalising 10 minutes into thesecond half when a long ball found the elusive Mweze with plenty of space to run into.

But a combination of the third officials’ offside flag and a rushing McAdam prevented any damage on the scoreboard.

Magriplis was on hand to parry a corner kick in the 61st minute that threatened the Reds goal.

But it was Hellenic who were too organised and too focused in a game that will grow in intensity in years to come.

Hellenic won a junior girls’ exhibition game 3-1 in front of a big early crowd at DFC.

The Blues and Darwin Olympic fielded young sides with players aged between 12 and 15 showing their skills.

Scoreboard - Hellenic 2 (P Koum 24, J Gamar 30) Darwin Olympic 0. HT: 2-0