For me by far the most interesting of
all the Round 5 Cup ties was the matchup of two ex-powerhouses in
Victorian Football, Western Eagles (Polonia)
-v- Preston Lions and after
arriving at the Polish Sports Complex and seeing a gleaming trophy
cabinet, you knew the Eagles weren't going to be pushovers despite
being two leagues below their more fancied opponents.
The Eagles started the brightest,
getting the ball forward and catching out the scrambling Lions
defence on a few occasions. Western figuring that attack was the best
form of defence soon took the lead, the Preston defence failed to
clear their lines and the loose ball dropped to Phillip Mucha who
curled his shot into the far corner beyond Kostadinovski in the Lions
goal.
Kostadinovski, apparently going into the match
with a torn quad sustained the previous week, had to be subbed off
shortly afterwards and was replaced by Justin Kiklevski for the
remainder of the match.
Preston tried to work their way back
into the game and started moving the ball around and creating a few
half chances, the best of which fell to Tony Steryovski at the back
post, Steryovski had time to take a touch but instead lashed his
first time shot high over the bar. Preston also managed a shot off
the post and a direct free kick well turned around the post by Klek
in the Eagles goal, but couldn't find that killer finish and went
into half time 1-0 down.
The second half saw a change in style
from Preston, instead of moving the ball around and trying to walk
the ball into the back of the net, they started to play more directly
which began to expose a few cracks in the Eagles defence. The Eagles
were finding it hard to get back into rhythm and get the ball
forward, Prestons defence being reshuffled and looking much more
solid than the first half.
A long ball over the top, misjudged by
the Eagles defence saw Danny Barakat pounce and lift the ball over
Klek into the far corner of the net to level the match.
The Eagles didn't drop their heads
instead kept plugging away trying to get forward and creating that
one chance they needed to win the match, Preston still had more of
the ball, but were not dominating their opponents with clear cut
chances still at a premium.
A rare attack by Western Eagles saw a
deflected long range effort wrong foot Kiklevski but the ball
cannoned off the crossbar and out for a corner as the Eagles players,
staff and supporters collectively put their hands on heads knowing
that they were not going to come much closer to regaining the lead.
The match was starting to look destined
for extra time until Robert Najdovski fired in a shot through bodies
from just outside the box beating Klek, who had been in fine form all
game, and nestled into the near corner of the net.
Clearly frustrated Western Eagles soon
went down to ten men with substitute Alec Stzycharski who was lucky
to not be shown a straight red earlier for an apparent head but on
his Preston Lions opponent, being show two yellow cards in quick
succession.
The Eagles were not done though and
continued to show their fighting spirit. With the last opportunity of
the match, they pumped a long free kick into the Lions box, Kiklevski
came but missed the ball and it was scrambled away by the Lions
defence.
Western Eagles will feel themselves
unlucky to not have at least forced extra time as they matched their
higher ranked opponents for most of the match, but it will be Preston
Lions into the hat for the Quarter Finals.
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