The fairytale has continued for State League 1 – South East club South Springvale (Aris).
They are now preparing for a Dockerty Cup final, with the chance to be crowned Victoria’s best.
Their win last Wednesday was the last chance for a Greek sponsored club to enter the final, with Bentleigh Greens squandering their chance with a 3-2 extra time loss to Melbourne Knights.
Aris owes its win to a fill-in goalkeeper, Jordan Gifkins.
After the match against Saint Albans Saints ended in a 1-1 draw and extra time ended fruitlessly, it had to be penalties that decided the match.
It took 22 penalty kicks to get there, with Gifkins managing to save a whopping nine goals.
Amazingly, the 17-year-old was coach Bill Lambropoulos’ second choice, after Aris’ goalkeeper was out of action.
Lambropoulos lavished the young goalie with praise after the eleventh hour win.
“The fairytale we talk about for the team, it’s come from the young goalkeeper,” Lambropoulos said to the FFV.
“He’s 17 years old, had to step in with our goalkeeper away for a wedding overseas. I’ve got to take my hat off to the young lad, he was superb.”
Aris was bolstered by getting the first goal through in game time, with Darragh Ryan carrying the team to a 1-0 lead in the first 10 minutes.
The game then became a desperate push to equalise from the more experienced Saints, with defender Barry Devlin getting close just after the hour mark.
The header spurred on Saint Albans, when just 11 minutes later Nicholas Cullen finally equalised the score, keeping them in the game.
Aris weren’t able to get the lead back, and if it wasn’t for the champion of the game, Gifkins, saving a couple more near goals in extra time, Aris wouldn’t be readying themselves for the final.
They have quite a wait to go to find out who exactly will get their hands on the Cup, with the final scheduled to be played on August 30.
The game mimicked the Aris semi-final, having to go to extra time to get the deciding goal.
Melbourne Knights looked like they were the ones being chased from the get go when Milan Batur got the Knights on the scoreboard in the 36th minute.
The Greens composed themselves at halftime and came out firing, giving South African import Ryan De Vries a comeback goal to equalise.
Knights then showed the Greens they meant business, pushing a goal just minutes later thanks to Daniel Visevic.
It was then a desperate fight to force extra time, with Jack Webster putting in the crucial second goal for Bentleigh to keep the match going.
Sadly, just ten minutes later the game was over for the Greens, with Stipo Andrijasevic netting the third and last goal for the Knights to clinch the win.
Greens caretaker coach John Gabrielson was proud of the team’s effort, but couldn’t hide his disappointment.
“We couldn’t get the result we wanted, but from an effort perspective the boys put in for 120 minutes, unfortunately, we just couldn’t get across the line,”
Gabrielson said to the FFV.
For Aris, the fairytale will continue, with the final coming up and the only Melbourne match for the FFA Cup on the horizon.