Olympic FC’s Jake McLean has spoken of his pleasure at the NPL Queensland champions turning their pre-season promise into a first round victory on Sunday in a 3-1 win over Brisbane City at Goodwin Park.

The attack-minded midfielder added to Matt Byrne’s opener for Olympic before Daniel Crack notched a late third, before City's Jarrod Kyle nabbed a late equaliser.

“I’m pretty happy with the result. I expected us to win,” McLean said after the match.

“We did well in pre-season and we are showing a lot of promise.”

Fullback Byrne’s composed 16th minute chest-down and finish was the only goal of the opening 45 minutes but McLean’s intervention seven minutes after the restart, pouncing on a spilled Reuben Way shot, ensured Olympic a healthy advantage in the second stanza.

“The message was to keep playing the way we were, just to make sure we didn’t get caught out by being lazy or complacent,” the former Brisbane Roar youth player said.

“We just wanted to keep defending and attacking the way we were going.”

The Grand Final rematch also marked the debuts of four Olympic FC players in Ryan Meskell, Darren Gray, Reuben Way and Terry Hughes, and the latter of the quartet was lauded by his midfield partner.

“Terry is quality,” McLean said of the 28-year-old Hughes, “We played together back at Rochedale so this is our third season together."

“He’s a lot better in the legs so it helps not having to do as much running and gives me more time on the ball.”

Equal top of the Olympic club goalscoring charts after the first weekend, McLean, who also netted a smart header in the club’s narrow 2013 NPL Finals Series defeat to Sydney United 58 FC, has set about improving on his five-goal haul from last season.

“Yeah, it was good to get on the sheet. I’m going for double figures this year,” he said confidently.

Olympic FC will meet SWQ Thunder at Toowoomba’s Clive Berghofer Stadium at 5.00pm on Saturday in Round 2.

 

Image: Olympic FC/Alannah Pearson