Wollongong United grabbed nationwide headlines for becoming the first ever Association club to book an Australian Cup Round of 32 ticket following it’s unbelievable 2-1 victory over League One Men’s outfit St George City at Penshurst Park on Wednesday night.
The scenes that followed soon after Wollongong United pulled off one of their biggest victories the preliminary stages of this knockout competition has ever seen were priceless, especially for their young 29-year-old coach Bill Tsovolos.
“I can’t speak for anyone else at the club but honestly for me it hasn’t sunk in what we have just achieved yet,” he stated to Football NSW.
“I think it will all start feeling more real for us once the official draw is done and we learn of who we are facing in the Round of 32.
“Obviously it would be a dream for us to be able to host an A-League team down in Wollongong but just being there is a dream come true for us all.”
Playing in the Illawarra Premier League, a competition known to many as one of the toughest Association competitions across Australia, the league itself has continued to feature a number of quality past and present NPL and former A-League and Socceroo stars – the fact of the matter is, it was only time until one of these IPL sides were set to make the step-up into history and Wollongong United did just that.
“This Australia Cup run, culminating in us reaching the round of 32 is something we have always dreamt of and to get there is a credit to everyone involved at the club from the playing group to the coaching staff and everyone else involved within the club,” said Tsovolos.
“I think this success further illustrates the strength of the IPL as one of the strongest Association competitions in the country. It was only a matter of time before a club from the IPL progressed to this stage and it is a wonderful feeling knowing that our club will be representing our region and our community on the national stage.”
Having spent most of his playing career as a footballer with Wollongong United, Tsolovos took over as head coach of the club this year would you believe, in search of a new passion behind those white lines of the football pitch.
Asked whether making the Round of 32 was one of the club’s objectives at the start of the season, the United coach stated it wasn’t until they knocked off NPL NSW Men’s heavyweights Blacktown City in Round 6 of the Preliminary stages that it started to become real and achievable.
“No honestly, we didn’t speak about this at all at the start of the year.
“You obviously enter the Australia Cup with the hope of reaching this stage, but it didn’t truly feel like a realistic or attainable goal for us until Mason Versi scored his wonder goal in the 90th minute of our game against NPL NSW Men’s side Blacktown City.
“From that moment on there has been a real buzz and desire amongst the boys to get the job done and credit to them, that is exactly what they did against St George City and made history.”
The road to the Round of the 32 hasn’t been easy for Wollongong United.
Their journey kicked off on the 8th of March when they defeated Football St George outfit Peakhurst United 5-2 away from home before playing away again on the 7th of April against Central Coast Football’s Southern & Ettalong FC defeating them 1-0.
The club’s first big scalp came in Round 4 when they took out League Two Men’s side Central Coast United 3-0 at Sir Ian McLennan Oval (their only Cup match in Wollongong) and this followed with yet another memorable victory over yet another League Two Men’s side Dunbar Rovers, 2-1 away at Fraser Park.
Having claimed two decent scalps, the ‘Giant Killers’ tag started to grow but came into full effect in Round 6 when they famously defeated NPL NSW Men’s giants Blacktown City thanks to a goal from former City star Mason Versi.
It was that victory that gave the club and players the belief that anything was possible and they did just that beating St George City.
The fact that they played five matches away from home coupled with a disruptive IPL season due to the heavy rains that hit Sydney and the South Coast made this win even bigger for the Association club.
“It’s been a disruptive Illawarra Premier League season that’s for sure.
“We have only 1 artificial pitch in the region and a majority of the grass pitches have been unplayable due to the bad weather we had.
“We have only played 4 out of our 16 league games so far, which i think makes our Cup run all the more impressive.
“How we have managed to score 3 late winners and come from behind twice in our last 3 games against quality, fully fit NPL opponents is truly beyond many of us.
“It’s a testament to the spirit and the attitude of the boys we have, in all my time in football I have never seen or been involved with such a tight group.”
Like any humble coach, the question was asked to signal out any players that we now need to know about following their Australia Cup Round of 32 achievement, Tsolovos at first was reluctant to give some names away before being persuaded.
“It is so hard to single out anyone in particular, it’s been a true team effort.
“Mason Versi has obviously pivotal to our run, he has been in scintillating form.
“Klime Sekutkoski has scored some pivotal goals for us during our run which obviously includes the winning goal that got us through to the Round of 32. Jacob Madden has been immense in goals, but I think on this platform I would most like to talk about our 3 youngest starting players for the last 2 rounds. James Stojanovski, Bailey Barbarovski and Kyah Jovanovski. All 3 boys are still only 20-21 years of age. They have all been with club since they were 16-17 years of age. They have all enjoyed plenty of success in the lower grades at the club and to watch them progress and develop over the last 4-5 years into regular first graders and then to watch them go up against some of the best players in the state over the last couple of weeks and not look out of place at all is something that they can be proud of and we as a club are certainly very proud of.
“Hopefully as a club we can continue to enjoy the success we have had over the last few years but also continue to develop young and local talent like those boys and hopefully help push a few on to bigger and better things.”
Not bad for a club that was formed in 1976 and were part of the then NSW Soccer Federation in 1979, a club steeped in decent history Tsolovos hopes to further add many more memories with this amazing achievement.
“The pinnacle of the club’s success was an undefeated season in the 1989 NSW Super League season which earnt us promotion to the NSL for the 1990/91 season.
“The club decided to return to the IPL in 2005.
“We had a successful run in the Waratah Cup in 2013, making it to the quarter finals and knocking off NPL NSW heavyweights Blacktown Spartans and Sydney United in the process.
“We have made it to the final round of 16 of the Cup in NSW in the past but to reach the final 4 in the state and the final 32 teams nationally ranks as one of the biggest achievements in the clubs history.”
