Tara Murray
Green Gully is through to the national stage of the Australia Cup after a strange win in the final round of the Victorian stage against Whittlesea United on Tuesday night.
The National Premier League side entered the match as red hot favourites against the state league 1 north-west side and scored early through an own goal.
The match was well and truly alive until a scuffle in the 34th minute.
Two Whittlesea Whittlesea United players were sent from the field after the scuffle, leaving the side with just nine players.
A third Whittlesea player would be sent from the field in the 87th minute after receiving two yellow cards with the side finishing with eight players on the field.
The Cavaliers were able to capitalise in the second half and would win 4-0 to seal their spot in the next round.
Nicholas Georgopoulos, Matthew Fletcher and Nahuel Bonada scored for the Cavaliers.
Cavaliers coach Stephen Downes said it was one of the weirder games he had been involved in.
“It was a very strange day of football,” he said.
“It almost made it a bit of a no contest when they had two players sent off. I don’t remember being involved in a game like this.
“But it’s always nice to progress to the national stage.”
It’s only the second time the Cavaliers have made it through to the national stage after making the quarter finals in 2016.
Downes said the group would continue not to put expectations on themselves in the cup.
“The club is steeped with history in Victoria and it’s nice to get that national recognition on the national stage,” he said.
“We want to always compete in finals and play high quality football. It’ll be the same as we do week in, week out, whoever we get draw against try to win a game of football.”
The cup run comes as the Cavaliers sit fourth in the NPL competition after 16 rounds.
Downes said they while that was where they wanted to be, there was still a lot of work to be done.
“We’re in fourth spot which means finals,” he said. “ We’re half way there, so we need to continue to lift the bar and not get complacent.
“We wanting to be sitting in the top six come round 26.
“We’ve got a talented group of young players and I believe they can still get better and hopefully our improvement mirrors that and we can be there come September.”
The Cavaliers are set to face Dandenong City on Saturday night, in their next NPL match.
Downes said despite City sitting second bottom, they wouldn’t take them easily.
While Cavaliers are through to the next round of the Australia Cup, Melbourne Knights cup run came to an end against Oakleigh Cannons.
It was a tough night on the park for the Knights with the Cannons winning, 4-0.
The Cannons led at 1-0 at half time before piling home the goals in second half.
