Olympic Kingsway have ended WA football’s seven-year itch with a dominant second-half display to reach the last 16 of the Australia Cup.
David Tough’s side came from behind to overrun Northern NSW outfit Edgeworth Eagles 4-1 in front of over 1400 fans at Kingsway Reserve.
It was a deserved win for the Green Machine, who will discover their opponents in the next round tomorrow.
And it finally got the monkey off the back for the local competition, as only Sorrento FC in 2017 had previously progressed beyond this stage.
“It’s a fantastic result for the club and a great result for WA football and shows we can compete with the teams in the eastern states,” Tough said.
It had been Edgeworth who settled more quickly and they took the lead on six minutes. Seth Clark’s inswinging cross found the unmarked Flynn Goodman, who shot past Adrian Sinagra for one-nil.
Indeed the visitors were untroubled for the opening period, keeping the ball and asking questions of the Olympic defence.
But that changed 10 minutes before the break when Eagles keeper Ben Conway fumbled Tyler Garner’s delivery and Joe Hobson poked the ball over the line.
Kingsway then looked the stronger and almost went ahead in spectacular style with the last kick of the half as Joe Knowles looked to catch out Conway from fully 35 yards, only for the ball to go narrowly wide.
Mitch Oxborrow spurned a great chance straight after the restart as Olympic picked up where they had left off.
The game turned further in Olympic's favour on 57 minutes when Edgeworth were reduced to 10 men after Christopher Fayers collected a second yellow card for bringing down Lebib Lebib.
And their misfortune deepened soon after as Knowles' half-saved shot was turned into his own net by Aaron Oppedisano.
Conway had looked unconvincing in the Edgeworth goal but showed his quality as a shot-stopper to deny Knowles and later Tyler Garner, while in between Sinagra pulled off an outstanding save to keep out Andrew Pawiak’s long-range effort.
Tough had introduced Liam Boland from the bench at 1-1 and the striker was instrumental in Olympic sealing the victory.
In the 80th minute he drove forward before slipping in Oxborrow to score. Then two minutes later he nodded down for Knowles to slide in, Marco Tardelli-style, and fire home the fourth.
“I’m proud of the boys. After the first 10, 15, I thought we really took control and then we were on them quite a lot, and even when they had a good spell of possession, we looked dangerous on the break,” Tough said.
“The sending-off was a big thing but I think we’d have won anyway, to be honest.
“Aryn Williams, Joe Knowles, Mitch Oxborrow, I could name a few, (Josh) Samson. All unbelievable.
“Sinagra made a really good save at 2-1, that was a pivotal save. But they’re a good side, even when they were down to 10 men they passed the ball, they looked dangerous, but on the break, I thought we looked sensational. It could have been five, six, or seven really.”
Looking ahead to tomorrow’s draw, which takes place at the conclusion of the three remaining Round of 32 ties, Tough said: “I wouldn’t mind another home tie, to be honest. What the club’s done today has been a fantastic spectacle, so anybody.
“We’ve had a massive crowd here, and when you see the work that was put in behind the scenes by the committee to put this event on, it’s been unbelievable.”
