Hume City’s season has come to an end with the club exiting both the FFA Cup and National Premier League finals last week.
It was always going to be a tough ask for City, which had to face A-League powerhouse Melbourne Victory on Wednesday night in the FFA Cup round of 16 before backing up on Sunday in the opening round of the NPL finals.
On Wednesday night, City put in a courageous performance against Victory, but bowed out in a 1-0 loss.
Having already played one game for the week, City struggled against South Melbourne on Sunday.
South Melbourne proved too strong, winning 3-0.
City captain Nick Hegarty said it had been a tough week.
“Obviously, at this time of year, things are either ending or it’s an exciting story,” he said.
“We’re reasonably happy to have made finals and the cup journey and we’ve matched last year.
“On the negative, we haven’t improved on our results from last year, which was always going to be hard.”
Hegarty said Wednesday’s performance against Victory was one of which they could be proud. He said the players felt after the game that they had held their own and given a good account of themselves.
The only goal of the game came via a contentious penalty.
“We did an unbelievable job,” he said. “They gave us a lot of respect and had watched us three times. They wanted to defeat us and show the strength of the A-League.
“On another night the game would have gone our way … two years in a row a soft penalty for a shirt pull has been called. We struggled after that point in both games.”
In Sunday’s elimination final, Hume City was outclassed by South Melbourne 3-0.
“When you do put in such a huge effort it does take a toll physically and mentally,” Hegarty said.
“We huffed and puffed our way through the game … they executed their game-plan well.”
Hegarty said the club would assess during the off-season how it could improve to make the next step in the NPL.
In NPL 2 west, Whittlesea Ranges’ late-season collapse continued with an 8-1 loss to Ballarat Red Devils.
The Ranges had three players sent off in the thrashing, including two within two minutes of each other at the 40-minute mark.
They were already 3-1 down at that stage.
Whittlesea, which was on top of the ladder for much of the season, has slipped to fourth.
