Green Gully hero Liam Boland says “bring on” another Hyundai A-League club in the Westfield FFA Cup, declaring they’ll be “scared” of taking on his giant-killing NPL side from Melbourne.
Boland wrote his name into FFA Cup folklore on Tuesday night with a stunning 40-metre goal which gave Gully a shock 2-1 win over professional outfit Central Coast Mariners at Green Gully Reserve.
It’s not only a huge moment for the member federation club but also sends them through to the last 16 of the competition.
On top of that, the club earned $5000 from NAB in the Golden Goals promotion for scoring twice against A-League opposition.
NAB Golden Goals cash prizes for member fed clubs
And Boland admits his confident side would love another crack at A-League opposition in the next round.
“Why not? As long as it’s here [Green Gully Reserve], why not?,” Boland said after the game.
“It’s really tough for teams to come here and now that we’ve beaten an A-League team they’ll be scared.
“Whoever we get, bring them on, we’re looking forward to it now.”
Gully’s win is just the second time in FFA Cup history and member federation club has beaten A-League opposition, after Adelaide City’s 1-0 win over Western Sydney Wanderers in 2014.
Arthur Papas’ side, which sits sixth in the Victorian PS4 NPL competition, were good value for their win, squandering a number of chances before pouncing twice in the last five minutes to seal their own piece of history.
“It’s unbelievable. I’m just so proud of the boys,” Boland said.
“We fought real hard, we believed all week that we could do it and for us to do it in that fashion, come back in the second half, we’ve done that all year. It just shows the character in the group.”
The draw for the last 16 of the competition will be held following the final four matches of the round of 32 next Wednesday night.
