By JARROD POTTER
ADD another legend to Greek mythology.
Only given a slim chance to advance – South Springvale Soccer Club overcame its higher-ranked opponent Hume City in the quarter finals of the Dockerty Cup to earn the club the first Victorian place in a national cup competition.
In “an historical moment for the club” South Springvale coach Bill Lambropoulos and his charges forged their own destiny with an emphatic 3-0 victory at Heidelberg’s Olympic Park on Wednesday night.
Named after the Greek god of war, the Aris boys took Hume City by siege, levelling the defence and forcing countless errors en route to victory, a Dockerty Cup semi-final spot and, most importantly, an invitation into the inaugural Football Federation Australia (FFA) Cup.
The first shots were fired as a defensive error between Hume’s Shane Rexhepi and goalkeeper Evan Alexandrow-Ridley let South Springvale striker Ali Hameed slot a walk-in goal in the eighth minute.
The early injury of Daniel Lakovakis forced Lambropoulos to bring on Bill Damianos and the wily midfielder/striker made a number of chances and helped link up the other strikers Dean Panagopoulos and Hameed.
Hameed was afforded too much room once again in the 24th minute as the livewire striker waltzed past the Hume defence and fired off South Springvale’s second score of the first half.
The second half was on a knife’s edge throughout as both sides failed to capitalise on their goal-bound attempts.
Hume City continued to test the South Springvale defence, desperately seeking the first goal to bring the match back within its grasp as Hume City captain Shane Rexhepi demanded his players “show something”.
The push was resisted by the Aris defence – the stellar efforts of goalkeeper Riani Dowisha and central defenders Couriail Nassim and Daniel Lakovakis halted the limited Hume opportunities with Dowisha earning a clean sheet with countless saves.
With the South Springvale crowd filling the Heidelberg stadium with chants of “ARIS, ARIS” the players lifted for one last attack in injury time as Damian Iaconis slotted the defining goal to help his team advance.
The coach felt pure joy when Iaconis’ strike hit the netting – fittingly coloured black and yellow, the same as South Springvale’s traditional kit.
“It was elation, absolute elation,” Lambropoulos said.
“Two-nil is always a funny score. You can turn it around and teams can come at you, but once we put the third one in, everything got settled and we’d done the job for the night.
“Fantastic win, I’m chuffed and speechless – the boys are over and besides themselves.
“We believed that on our day, if we were disciplined on the ground we could challenge just about anybody and we showed this today.”
Lambropoulos thanked the South Springvale fans and encouraged everyone in the City of Greater Dandenong to watch the team’s next Dockerty Cup clash.
The coach also said the win shows the FFV State League 1 South East team has shown it is competition ready for a step up to NPL in upcoming seasons.
South Springvale advances to the final four of the Dockerty Cup, with the next round of matches to be confirmed.
The FFA Cup round of 32 is set to commence on 29 July.
FFV DOCKERTY CUP
SCOREBOARD
Hume City 0 defeated by South Springvale 3 – Ali Hameed (8 and 24) and Damian Iaconis (90+3).
