Five minutes of mayhem and a Stephen Domenici double lifted Canberra Olympic to a crucial win on Sunday and put them back in touch with the premier league ladder leaders.
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But coach Frank Cachia said the most impressive aspect of a 2-0 win against Belconnen United was being able to blood two teenagers in a confidence-boosting victory.
Sebastian Wood, 16, and the coach's son Jordan Cachia, 18, made their premier league debut at O'Connor Enclosed as Olympic held on for a tense win.
It was the perfect way to finish a hectic week, which included two losses from three games and a host of injuries that threatened to derail Olympic.
Cachia has now thrown four rookies into first grade in the past two weeks and being able to watch his son was the icing on the cake for a grueling stretch of games.
"I don't go too well coaching [Jordan]," Cachia grinned. "I'm probably harder on him than I am on anyone else and he's probably been waiting longer than anyone else, but he's stuck in there.
"Three of the boys [to make their debut] have been playing from under-14s all the way through, so to see them make first grade debut was good because we just don't give out jerseys.
"It's great for the club to be developing players and it's important we've got young guys coming through, hopefully this win puts us back on track again."
Domenici proved the difference in a tight contest to finish round six, scoring less than two minutes before half-time when he pounced on a deflection to put Olympic in front.
It gave Olympic the edge in the contest, but a controversial period at the start of the second half broke the game open.
Belconnen thought they had claims for a penalty when it appeared the ball hit the hand of an Olympic defender in the box. Their pleas fell on deaf ears, which proved extra costly less than five minutes later.
Olympic worked their way to the opposite end of the field, won a corner and then a penalty when the referee deemed the ball hit a Belconnen defender's hand.
Domenici converted the penalty and Phillipe Borgeaud was temporarily sent from the field for dissent.
"Conceding a goal before half-time hurts you, but you're still in the game. Then you get one decision at one end of the field and not the other ... that takes it away from you a bit," said Belconnen coach Steve Forshaw.
"We had a mountain to climb, but to the lads' credit, in the last 20 minutes they really, really put some pressure on. If one or two things went our way, you get a point out of that.
"Olympic played well and they got a good three points. But even with 10 or 15 minutes to go, I thought we could get some momentum back but we couldn't get it over the line."
Olympic goalkeeper Rory Larkin made sure his side held on to the lead, pulling off four crucial saves in the second half to prevent a Belconnen fightback.
Cooma is still at the top of the table with five wins, while Olympic is lurking behind on a congested ladder. Third-placed Monaro beat Tuggeranong and Gungahlin smashed Woden-Weston 5-0 on Saturday.
AT A GLANCE
Round six: CANBERRA OLYMPIC 2 (Stephen Domenici 44', 58' pen) bt BELCONNEN UNITED, CANBERRA FC 3 bt RIVERINA RHINOS 0, MONARO PANTHERS 4 bt TUGGERANONG UNITED 1, GUNGAHLIN UNITED 5 bt WODEN-WESTON FC 0