It’s been an odd sort of season for Bentleigh Greens in 2014. While largely considered successful – due to their FFA Cup involvement – for the most part their league, and to a certain extent, state cup form has been patchy. The latter saw them do enough to qualify for FFA Cup honours in their debut season, but were disappointingly bundled out in extra-time against fellow NPL Victoria side Melbourne Knights in the Semi-Finals. The rest was history as the Knights toppled the less fancied South Springvale in the decider; Bentleigh left to rue their missed opportunities in the Dockerty Cup.
On the league front, a fourth placed finish hinted at a respectful showing in their debut NPL season, but given the 23 point gap between them and runaway leaders South Melbourne, it would’ve been met with disappointment internally from the playing and coaching staff, especially given their impressive 2013.
The Greens have forged a strong reputation under coach John Anastasiadis for playing football the right way, with a young, hungry squad assembled to complement some of the more experienced figures through the spine, namely, Englishman Wayne Wallace, whose industrious performances in the middle of the park for Bentleigh went a long way towards their fourth place finish. But a lack of consistency meant they weren’t ever truly a chance of challenging for top honours come the end of the season.
After seeing their season opener against Ballarat postponed due to some unruly weather, they then went five games unbeaten, knocking off reigning VPL champs Northcote City in the process. Socceroo’s striker Brent McGrath – signed during the pre-season – and Melbourne Victory youth captain Luc Jeggo were both hitting their straps, but when the former departed for Asia, and their engine room went down with a season ending ACL injury, their form began to waiver.
A loss to the struggling Green Gully, and a 1-1 draw with bottom of the pile Goulburn Valley followed and they suddenly found themselves 16 points off the pace by Round 10.
They kept ticking however and fashioned four straight wins in early June, scoring 10 goals in the process, which kept them just about in the title race. Even a temporary change of coach couldn’t slow down the rampant Bentleigh train caretaker coach John Gabrielson fashioned a 4-0 win over Werribee in his first game in charge in Round 17.
Looking after the club while Anastasiadis was overseas completing his UEFA A-License qualifications, Gabrielson finished with two wins and a loss – which came against Oakleigh Cannons – as well as overseeing their Dockerty Cup loss against the Knights.
On his return, Anastasiadis masterminded Bentleigh’s biggest result of the season as they toppled South Melbourne 2-1, but that was promptly followed by yet another disappointing draw against the Suns.
With no finals to look forward to at seasons close and no realistic chance of winning the title, Anastasiadis admitted that the prospect of the FFA Cup was keeping his side motivated to perform.
“[The FFA Cup] is the main aim, because we can’t win the league,” the Bentleigh coach revealed in the latter stages of the year.
“100% the motivation wouldn’t have been there [were it not for the FFA Cup]. We would’ve probably played kids from now on and just give them a go. We always want to finish as high as possible but when there’s nothing to aim for, it really doesn’t mean anything for us.”
His side are presented with a fantastic opportunity to make their season really count by putting their name in the hat for the Semi-Finals of the nations biggest club cup competition.