By ADEM SARICAOGLU
SUNSHINE George Cross is through to the Football Federation Victoria’s Knockout Cup semi-finals after beating Pascoe Vale in a penalty shoot-out last week.
The Georgies were locked with Pascoe Vale at 2-2 after 90 minutes and 3-3 after 30 minutes of extra time, but managed to win the shoot-out 5-4 in a nail-biting contest.
Coach Tony Ciantar said he was happy to come away with the win, but says the game should have been won in regulation time.
“We probably didn’t play at our best, but (it was) a great result regardless,” Ciantar said.
“It was a very exciting spectacle for the supporters, but from a coaching point of view we just made a few too many errors and we just let them back into the game. In the end it could have cost us.”
The Georgies led 1-0 at halftime but conceded a goal early in the second half.
Momentum swung back and forth as Sunshine twice hit back to regain the lead, but Pascoe Vale kept finding an answer, and during the second period of extra time managed to level the game once more to force penalties.
With Sunshine sitting ninth on the State League Division One ladder with six matches remaining for the season, Ciantar said his club can still come away with a good result in both the league and cup competitions.
“Given our position in the league, we want to try and finish as high as possible in the in the cup,” he said.
“It’s a bit unfortunate to not be able to use the new players that we’ve signed because they’re all cup sides, but it’s (the cup competition) very important for the club, they definitely would like to go all the way.
“We want to finish up as high as possible in the league. That is definitely our aim.
“Mathematically we still have hope, and as long as we have hope, we definitely have a lot of belief at the club and we will try and finish as high as possible.
“Overall it doesn’t look that good on the scoreboard, but I honestly believe it hasn’t been a too bad season for the club.
“We’ll try and we’ll definitely do our best to try and bring that cup home.”
