Two teams, two games and two different results – that was the story for Hume City and Green Gully last week.
The two National Premier League sides faced off last Tuesday night in their rescheduled Dockerty Cup semi-final before playing in the NPL on Saturday night.
The Cavaliers took the honours the first time around, winning the semi-final 2-0.
Having learnt from the first game, City reversed the result on Saturday night, winning 2-0.
If having two games wasn’t hectic enough, Hume parted ways with coach Louie Acevski and assistant coach Zoran Markovski between the two matches.
Acevski announced that he wouldn’t be coaching next season and the club then decided it wanted its new future to start immediately.
City captain Nick Hegarty said it had been a hard and emotional week.
“It was tough with the [semi-final] result and then the coaches leaving,” he said.
“Obviously, we wanted to improve on last year in the Dockerty Cup, but it went against us on the night.
“We then had our backs to the wall on Saturday night … the start of a new era.”
Hegarty said the departure of Acevski had hit the players hard but that they couldn’t dwell on it.
The skipper said they learnt from Tuesday night’s mistakes.
“We identified the ways we could get at Green Gully, the ways that we could beat them,” Hegarty said.
“We are both pretty competitive sides. To the players’ credit we did that.”
For more pictures of Saturday’s game, CLICK HERE
Hegarty said that in both games, the victors scored good goals early to gain momentum.
On Saturday night, it was the same magic from Tom Cahill that opened the scoring for Hume. The win was sealed by Danny Dixon late in the match.
City is sixth on the ladder and now only one point behind fifth-placed Cavaliers.
Things don’t get any quieter for City, which has two games this week.
On Wednesday night, it kicks off action in the national stage of the FFA Cup when it plays Marconi Stallions at ABD Stadium.
City then faces Heidelberg United in NPL action on Sunday.
City was the fairytale story of last year’s cup, making the semi-finals.
“It’s something that everyone who was there last year remembers,” Hegarty said.
“ABD Stadium was bouncing and every game was enjoyable.
“Hopefully there will be a lot of people down there again and it’s on Fox Sports.”
