Two straight wins over very strong opposition had the Weston Workers Bears primed for a third consecutive appearance at home this time under slate grey skies, as they took on a Newcastle Olympic side who had registered only a solitary victory from their opening three fixtures.

Olympic had the wood over the Bears in recent times; one would have to scour the history books all the way back to 2019 to find Weston's most recent victory over an outfit then carrying the Hamilton moniker, with the prior instance being as far back as 2014.

Weston's reserve grade side set a strong tone for the afternoon with a 2-0 victory moving them to four wins from as many games in 2023, all against sides who would traditionally be considered contenders for a finals berth.

The first grade side would look to follow suit, and indeed would enjoy the early running, though without being able to really put their mark on the contest in terms of a scoreboard advantage.

A well organised Olympic defence did well to turn chances into half chances for Weston. Connor Heydon drew a smart save in the 14th minute before Cooper Buswell prodded the bouncing follow up over the bar.

By some form of miracle, Hamza Moosvi managed to escape a booking - or worse - for his scything 24th minute lunge that brought down Alessandro Ouwerkerk from behind; fortunately, the young Dutchman was able to continue after a brief period of recover.

Dieuseul Kandundaho fashioned a couple of opportunities for himself in the 21st and 27th minutes respectively, but the first had its venom removed via a deflection and the second was well off target.

A long range speculator from Chris Hurley in the 29th minute was comfortably claimed by Pearce, while strikes from Yuta Konagaya and then Heydon the following minute were each blocked by a tightly packed Olympic backline.

Konagaya's ambitious 35 yard free kick attempt in the 31st minute saw him connect well, but the strike whistled over the bar.

Weston earned a series of corners - a count they led 5-0 just after the half hour mark - but were unable to do a great deal with them, their dead ball routines undoubtedly leaving something to be desired.

A jumping two footed tackle from Luke Rutledge saw him fortunate to connect with the ball first, with the fleet of foot Kandundaho showing a touch too much of it.

Some silky interplay between Aaron Niyonkuru, Buswell and Konagaya in the 35th minute almost saw the Olympic defence finally compromised, but a misstep on the heavy pitch by the latter cruelly curtailed a potentially eye catching move.

It had been all one way traffic to this point, with the visitors having barely registered an offensive move of note and Bears custodian Gerard Roebuck called upon only to collect errant long balls or redistribute back passes from his own defence.

The football gods often have other ideas, though, and so it would prove here. Roebuck's first save, a regulation block of an acute angled header from Grant Michaels off a looping 35 yard Joey Langlois free kick, saw the Bears concede their first corner of the afternoon.

The initial cross was dealt with comfortably by the Bears defence, but it was returned to sender; Langlois' second bite at the cherry was miscued slightly towards the far post and soared over the heads of his intended targets.

Ultimately, it deceived Roebuck as well, nestling in the back of the net to hand Olympic a shock lead against the run of play in the 45th minute.

The Bears now found themselves in the quite bizarre position of trailing the contest despite generating nearly all of the game's attacking output to this point.

Skipper Hurley did well to rally his troops and not allow heads to drop in the wake of the setback, and led from the front with a robust shoulder to shoulder challenge two minutes into first half stoppage time that drew an irate reaction from the travelling faithful but rightly led the referee to allow play to continue.

Forty-eight minutes of football down and the sides headed to the sheds with markedly different outlooks on proceedings than what they each would have harboured only five minutes or so earlier.

Weston gaffer Kew Jaliens was running a tight ship and had made some excellent adjustments on the fly to adapt to the flow of the match and address any tactical deficiencies, but his task now would be oriented towards motivation as he needed a response from his men.

A defensive mix up for the Bears just under a minute after the restart saw Moosvi handed a gilt edged opportunity, but he blazed his strike halfway to Sawyers Gully with Hurley bearing down on him.

In the 49th minute, though, the Bears finally had their breakthrough. A low Heydon cross was deftly laid off by Buswell with a silken touch to Niyonkuru, who showed superb sleight of foot to elude his markers and leave the Olympic defence in tatters before coolly converting from twelve yards.

Not only was it a crucial equaliser but an aesthetically pleasing one at that.

The Bears were now looking very dangerous, and went close to another just a minute later as Kandundaho put Niyonkuru through again; on this occasion, though, Niyonkuru skewed his effort off target.

Konagaya was the next to tee up Niyonkuru, in the 60th minute, but once again the Weston livewire's effort was wide of the mark. Konagaya's own fizzing low effort a minute later was easily dealt with by Pearce.

Konagaya went close in the 63rd after several Weston players looked to fashion a shot only to find their paths to goal respectively blocked by a tightly martialled Olympic backline; he could not quite manage to squeeze his close range drive inside the near post, with Pearce well positioned.

At the other end, Olympic would earn consecutive corners, but were unable to threaten Roebuck's goal.

With the floodlights now on, the visitors were beginning to find themselves in a war of attrition, as players were dropping left and right with cramp, largely brought on by the boggy pitch.

The Bears would go on to earn another series of corners of their own, just after the 70 minute mark, but substitute Connor Evans' three consecutive low near post deliveries in the space of just over a minute were all straight at a wall of blue, and the hosts were thus unable to make their spell of sustained pressure count for anything of consequence.

Evans' finessed effort from the edge of the box in the 78th minute did not cause Pearce to break a sweat, and the parochial supporters of Bear Park were growing increasingly frustrated at the fact their men were thus far unable to gain scoreboard ascendancy despite dominating virtually the entire match.

A Niyonkuru penalty appeal a minute later was waved away, before a corner and close range free kick were each cleared after excellent pieces of desperation defending by the visitors, who to their credit had played a disciplined and stifling brand of football all afternoon to strangle the Bears and starve their key attackers of space and time.

A tired and clumsy Ouwerkerk challenge in the 85th minute saw him give away a free kick on the wide edge of the box, but Olympic were unable to make anything of it.

Buswell was replaced shortly after this by Ben Clouten for a late cameo, as Jaliens looked to inject fresh legs in a bid to create a bit of chaos in the final third and break the contest open at the death.

The Bears defence, too, were doing their jobs with aplomb; it is often underestimated how difficult it can be to switch on instantly to deal with sporadic attacking opportunities after long periods of inactivity, but Weston were doing just that, quickly recovering to avert the danger on each occasion they looked to be in a spot of bother.

They comfortably cleared their lines after Olympic won a pair of corners, avoiding any undesired shift in the momentum of the match.

A borderline kamikaze surge off his line by Roebuck in the 92nd minute saw him a touch fortunate that the bounce of the ball eluded Olympic substitute Jared Muller on the edge of the box, as he clutched at fresh air after a roll of the dice.

Evans got himself into a great position in the 93rd, latching on to a through ball from Niyonkuru to round Pearce on the byline and cut back across the now open goal a yard out from the line, only for the linesman's flag to curtail any further progress.

The final opportunity of the match came by way of a 95th minute corner; a period of pandemonium inside the box would follow, firstly as Clouten was body checked leading to a half hearted penalty appeal, then as Michaels produced an absolutely crucial double block to firstly deny Jacob Dundas' low drive from the edge of the box and then Niyonkuru's from just inside it.

With Dobson well positioned to deliver a follow up cross from the scraps and with the majority of the Weston XI camped inside the box waiting to receive the ball, the referee blew for full time with the scores somehow still locked.

The Bears camp will undoubtedly be collectively scratching their heads as to how that one got away, having created enough chances to win three games but coming away with only a point to show for it.

They will now need to dust themselves off ahead of an away April Fools' Day El Clasicoal against a Maitland side who have surprisingly dropped two on the bounce, having most recently been skewered by a late three goal Valentine flurry in the space of just five minutes after relinquishing a 1-0 lead when they went down to 10 men with half an hour remaining.

Of the last eight coalfields derbies, Weston lead the head to head 5-3 - 3-2 in the last five - and there has not been a draw between the two since 2015.