Winston Hills FC ready for 17s State Cup Final
Having committed their allegiance to the Granville Association, the Winston Hills Football Club under 17s team is gearing up for a massive State Cup battle this weekend.
When his Castle Hill RSL team made the decision to switch to Winston Hills, Coach Anthony Herrera believed it was an important step for his boys to take in order to stay highly competitive.
“We believe that playing in the Granville Association provided the best opportunity to play in big competitions like the Football NSW State Cup, that was one of the main reasons why we stayed with them.
“We wanted to stay in the strongest possible competition and I guess we’re proud to be flying the Granville & District Soccer Football Association flag and hopefully we can bring back the silverware for Granville.
“It’s been a tough year so any success on the field will be great for them.
“The boys are pretty excited. We kind of picked the Football NSW State Cup as our main tournament this year that we take seriously, the one where we really put all our eggs in the one basket and make sure we get the trophy.
Apart from their success at State Cup level, the team has impressed in their regular season competition as well.
“We’ve had a good year so far in our local competition, we’re undefeated so far. It’s always tough doing Saturday and Sunday games. The boys have handled it really well, they probably ended up playing better football on Sunday than they did on Saturday.
Herrera credits the attitude of the team in getting them this far in the tournament.
“The boys are all best mates, they all hang out outside of football. They’re a top bunch of kids. They’re in it for the football so it’s a pleasure to be coaching them.”
While he says his team isn’t daunted by the challenge they will face against Gymea United on Sunday, Herrera acknowledges that his team’s opponents will be battle hardened having played in the Sutherland Shire Football Association.
“Any team that ever comes out of the Sutherland Association will be extremely strong, there’s no weak teams in Sutherland.
“They’re the biggest association in the country and they’ve had a good history in Champions of Champions and State Cup Finals, so I’m not surprised we’re playing a team form Sutherland.”
Herrera was quick to dismiss any sense of travelling into this game as underdogs.
‘I’m not sure that we’d accept an underdogs tag in a game like this.
“We’re confident in what we do.
“At the same time, we’re big on being humble in our approach to things, respecting any team whether they’re coming last or whether it’s a State Cup final.
“We approach every game exactly the same with the right mentality, so I guess we don’t change our approach because if we get our attitude right, we know we’ll be fine.
”During the State Cup Finals, Football NSW will make use of balls supplied by Deploy Football. An Official Ball Sponsor of Football NSW, Deploy Football product can be purchased online through The Football Corner website. Football NSW would like to thank Deploy Football for their ongoing support of our beautiful game in New South Wales.
-By Harry Easton
