Brisbane Strikers skipper Greg King is proud of his team’s 2-1 extra time win over Broadmeadow Magic in the historic opening night of the Westfield FFA Cup.
Speaking after the game, King described a jubilant scene in the dressing rooms after Strikers came from a goal down, and overcame a missed penalty, to advance to the next round on the back of goals to Matt Thurtell and Scot Coulson.
“The boys are obviously over the moon after the way the game panned out, which I think had a lot to do with it”, King said.
He said he had been tough on his team who conceded the opening goal against the run of play midway through the second half.
“Obviously we scored pretty quickly after that, which is the best way to reply, and then the penalty (save) could have deflated us. But I think we held our own pretty well from there,” King said.
“They took a couple of minutes to refocus and I think we regrouped pretty well and we kicked on after that.”
King said Strikers were tentative and nervy in the scoreless first half, but he put it down the circumstances surrounding the game which included being boradcast live around the country on Fox Sports – a first for many of the players.
“During the game I think it was a bit nervous, as you can understand – the experience, the setting, being on TV and all those sorts of things, there was a lot of media hype,” King explained.
"So I think it took us time to adjust to the situation. To be honest it probably took us about 30 minutes to adjust, but we eventually got there and started playing some good football.”
King credited Broadmeadow Magic on their performance, but ultimately believes that the better side had eventually prevailed.
“(Broadmeadow) were definitely brave. You can’t take away the doggedness that they showed”, King said.
“But at the end of the day I think we were the better team and created the better chances and I think that, from a football purist’s standpoint, we played the better football”.
King also agreed that some of his teammates had put their names forward to the eyes of interested Hyundai A-League clubs.
“Some of the boys did their cause no harm at all. Obviously ‘Turts’ (Thurtell) played well and scored a cracker of a goal and, of some of the other boys, I think Brad (Savage) in his first game for the first team since the end of last year - he didn’t look out of place at all today,” King said.
