Tara Murray
Hume City’s title hopes were ended by South Melbourne for a third time this season on Wednesday night in the Australia Cup.
Having been knocked out of the Dockerty Cup finals and National Premier League finals by South Melbourne, Hume faced South Melbourne in the Australia Cup quarter finals.
For the third time in its past four games, Hume had to face extra time in the quest for a win.
Hume took the lead early on through skipper Josh Bingham before a penalty to Harrison Sawyer just after half time levelled the scores.
Maximilian Mikkola put South Melbourne in front in the 73th minute with Lachlan Weier bringing scores back to level two minutes later.
Scores were locked at 2-2 at the end of regular time before South Melbourne scored in extra time, in the 116th minute through Jordan Lampard to come away with a 3-2 win.
Speaking before the game on Hume City’s social media, Hume president Ersan Gulum spoke about the season and making it to the quarter finals of the Australia Cup.
“It’s been an incredible season for Hume City, where do we start,” he said on the video. “Dockerty Cup semi final, unfortunately we couldn’t get that over the line.
“If you look at the season competition itself overall, the highest ever points tally in a single season… What an achievement by the club and players.
“You can see now it’s benefiting through the club itself and it’s attracted a lot more fans now.
“Full credit to everyone involved at Hume City.”
Gulum, who has both played and coached Hume previously, stepped up as president during the season.
He said one of their big targets was to bring back that community to the club and with it the supporters who had gone away from them the past couple of years.
“We can see now that they’re on the bandwagon and they haven’t stopped,” he said. “They’ve been absolutely amazing for us and the players are feeling it and us as a committee we’re feeling it too,
“We don’t want it to stop, we don’t want this season to end.”
Meanwhile, Hume’s Aamir Abdallah was one of the big winners at the Victorian Football gala night on Friday night.
The winger was crowned the NPLM Gold Medallist, the competition’s top honour, finishing with 32 votes.
He scored 14 goals and had eight assists across 20 games.
He also claimed the players’ players award and the Bill Fleming Medal for the best NPLM player voted by the commentary team.
