On the back of relegation from FV state league 3 north-west, Westside Strikers have made a strong start to 2024, passing through the first round of the Australia Cup in dramatic fashion.
The Strikers faced Mentone in the first round of the cup, finishing the 90 minutes at 1-1. Extra time still couldn’t split the sides with the match going to penalties. After a long penalty shootout, the Strikers got the better of their counterparts winning 11-10 in the shootout.
“For us the cup comes pretty early on so you don’t get to have too many weeks under your belt of being fully prepared with a few players not quite ready,” Strikers’ coach Simon Vasconcelo said.
“We faced a pretty decent opponent and suffered a red card early in the second half so we had to find a bit of fighting spirit within ourselves to take the game into extra time and a penalty shootout.
“The shootout was a bit of a roller coaster, luckily we got the good result at the end and got the winning penalty and made it through to the next round.”
On the weekend the Strikers faced Morwell-based club Fortuna, played after deadline.
“We’re looking forward to it but we don’t know what to expect because they don’t play in the state leagues but from what I’ve heard in the country-regional leagues they are pretty decent,” Vasconcelo said in the lead up to the match.
“We’re hoping to do the state leagues proud and continue on in the cup.”
Following the club’s relegation into state 4, the Strikers once again had to rebuild their squad, however, with almost all the pieces in place now Vasconcelo said it should be a good season ahead.
“We’ve retained five players from last year’s squad,” he said.
“It’s a new dynamic, the players are getting along well. We’ve got players from all different cultures and everyone’s getting along well which is the main thing.
“So far we look like we’re playing decent football and we’re continuing to get better as the weeks go on.”
While the goal for the Strikers is to not spend much time in state 4, Vasconcelo isn’t anticipating it will be easy.
“The goal now is to be very competitive,” he said.
“In saying that we have some pretty strong teams in state four in a whole is going to be at the best quality it has ever been because there’s a lot of strong teams in it at the moment.
“We want to be a competitive team and find out if we’ve got the right resources to compete at the top, that’s what we’re in it for.
“It’ll be an exciting league, there are a lot of strong teams there doing a lot of things.”
