Hume City coach Lou Acevski labelled yesterday night’s thrilling 3-2 FFA Cup Quarter Final triumph over Oakleigh Cannons as the biggest in the club’s history but knows that what lies ahead is even more exciting.
The head coach detailed the goals that the Broadmeadows based club had set for themselves in 2015, admitting that his sides FFA Cup success had far exceeded their expectations.
“Before the first game, our goals were to make the top six in the league – which we did – make it as far as we could in the Dockerty Cup – we made it to the Semi-Finals – and one of our main aims was to make the FFA Cup,” Acevski said post game.
“We’ve achieved all our goals and we’re exceeding them [by] making the Semi-Finals or Finals. In saying that, we didn’t want to just participate in the FFA Cup, we wanted to give a real go at it, and that’s what we’ve done.
“It’s a massive achievement for the club. Today was the biggest game for the club in its history; the next will be even bigger.
“The club is just enjoying the ride as well as the players themselves. Hopefully we’ll just keep kicking goals and move on to bigger and better things again.
The game was sealed late into extra-time by midfield maestro Marcus Schroen, with Theo Markelis twice clawing Hume level with an Oakleigh side who’d had the lead for the majority of the contest.
It wasn’t the first time that Hume had enjoyed success on the back of their resilient nature, with their Round of 32 clash against Far North Queensland also going the distance in a two-hour thriller.
“What is it about them? You’ve got some really good footballers in the team and individuals who can win games single-handedly,” Acevski said.
“At the end of the day, it’s a team effort completely and the characters, the individual personalities are fantastic. Their determination to win games is unbelievable so nothing but credit to the boys.”
The performances of the Broadmeadows based scrappers on the national stage have once again thrust names forward in regards to A-League selection, but Acevski cheekily revealed he had no plans to see them go.
“I hope not, I want them to stay here!” he said.
“On a serious note, the boys deserve an opportunity. The same names keep popping up and if they’re put in that environment, I’m sure they’ll produce the goods.
“Again they can’t do much more than they’re doing – [Markelis] has scored two goals today, Hegarty was just all over the place, he was unbelievable. Marcus [Schroen] again did a great job, Chris [Oldfield] made some great world-class saves and Jai Ingham was on fire in the attacking third.
“Matt Hennessey is 18-years-old and he’s got a massive future as well. You can’t take that away from any player, if they’ve got aims and ambitions to go higher – which I’m sure they do – then I’m here to support them.
“When you look at it overall, with such a young squad – the average age is 23 – if we can keep this squad together, we’ll go onto bigger and better things next year.
“For me personally, I’m just happy to see these players producing the goods and to do what they’re doing, it’s unbelievable.”
When asked about his sides chances of taking out the competition, Acevski believed “without a doubt” that they could, so long as they continue to show the heart that’s gotten them this far.
“Doesn’t matter who we play, be it an A-League or NPL [side], we’ll just give it our best shot and play our game,” he said.
“It’s 11 men versus 11 men and anything can happen on the day, but the A-League teams are obviously going to be the favourites.
“We’ll be the underdogs and that’s fine with us. We’ll just give it a good shake.”