By Tara Murray
Hume City has claimed its first senior piece of silverware, winning the Dockerty Cup on Saturday night.
In a night that will go down in club history, Hume came away with a 1-0 win against the Melbourne Knights, which was chasing its 10th Dockerty Cup premiership.
Hume City coach Nick Hegarty said it was an amazing feeling for the club with many supporters making the trek to Kingston Heath for the grand final.
“It’s a really good feeling for not only myself, the players and staff, but the club in general,” he said.
“It’s been a long time coming and it’s been a really good season.
“People involved years and years ago put together a team for the juniors and put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears.
“To have this kind of success, winning trophies, gives back to them and we can all unite and celebrate the hard work put in.
“We’re rapt, hopefully it’s only the start.”
Despite the Knights having more finals experience, it was Hume that got the upper hand early.
James Brown got the breakthrough with a top corner strike in the 28th minute to give Hume the lead.
That would be the only goal of the game.
Hegarty said they had the ascendancy in the first half and were able to hold on.
“Come half-time, we weren’t up by as many goals as we would have liked,” he said.
“At 1-0 you’re always under pressure and one moment could change the game.
“The boys stood strong and I haven’t seen a group in my career that wanted to win as much.”
Stevie Hewitt was awarded the best on ground medal.
Hegarty said it was a brilliant team performance.
“We play a really team oriented style,” he said. “If we have five or six players in form, we’re hard to beat.
“They are a really young group and they are starting to realise how good winning feels and it adds to the level of maturity.
“Hopefully they’ll aspire to get more from that.”
Hume still has two more opportunities this season to add some more silverware to the collection.
It is still alive in the FFA Cup, and returns to National Premier League action this weekend, when it again faces the Knights.
Hegarty said it was a dead rubber in relation to finals positions, but there would possibly be some spice following the Dockerty Cup final.
It doesn’t get any easier for Hume City which faces Adelaide Olympic on August 28, before the opening round of NPL finals.
Hegarty said they would continue to enjoy the journey.
“It’s never-ending at the moment,” he said.
“We just have to put in the best performance we can on the day. Sometimes you’re a victim of your own success, but long may it continue and we keep winning.”
