One of the real features of the Westfield FFA Cup over the first two years has been the tendency for many of the matches to throw up some late, late drama.
And no match demonstrates that better than on the opening night of last season’s competition at a chilly ABD Stadium in Melbourne's western suburb of Broadmeadow.
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Victorian PS4 NPL club Hume City hosted the Brisbane Strikers, the Queensland powerhouses and a former NSL club.
It was one of the more intriguing ties of the opening round and the ensuing 120-minutes didn’t disappoint.
And we were treated to seven goals and the birth of a new FFA Cup star.
Hume prevailed 4-3 after extra-time but the Strikers will be wondering how they threw it away as they were just seconds away from a spot in the last 16.
After the sides were locked at 1-1 at the break, the visitors looked like they had clinched it when Scot Coulson slid the ball under Chris Oldfield in the final minute.
With just injury-time left, surely there was no way back for Hume.
But inexplicably almost from the kick-off, Hume attacked down the left with Ivan Pavlak’s cross to the far post headed in by Marcus Schroen to send the game to extra-time and spark joyous scenes among the small but vocal home crowd.
It wasn’t Schroen’s last significant contribution of the night.
Again in extra-time the Strikers got themselves in front as Coulson seized on a defensive lapse to make it 3-2 after 103 minutes.
But in a carbon copy of what happened at the end of normal time, Schroen - a former Melbourne City youth team player – again equalised barely a few minutes later, this time heading home Jai Ingham’s corner.
Where would the drama end?
The answer came just seconds before the match was set to go to penalties.
Hume substitute Liam Newman cut into the box and looked to find Schroen in the box, only for Strikers defender Greg Henslee to turn the ball into his own net.
It was an astonishing end to a truly memorable night in the suburbs of Melbourne.
“It was quite a spectacular night,” Hume’s hero Schroen said after the match.
“We thought we were out of it at one stage but that’s the character of the boys to keep on fighting on two occasions to come back at 2-2 and to 3-3 as well.
“When your 2-1 down with a minute to go you just have to gamble. I know the boys never stop believing so it’s credit to them."
Hume went on to make it all the way to the semi-finals of last year’s competition and are back involved again in 2016.
Could we see them involved in another Westfield FFA Cup thriller when the round of 32 gets underway next month?
