For the first time in the history of the FFA Cup, the national stage of the competition (Rd of 32) will have no Victorian based Greek clubs after the mid-week elimination of the two remaining teams, Oakleigh Cannons and South Melbourne.

South’s dream of reaching the FFA Cup round of 32 ended up in pieces on the Knights Stadium ground in their 4-2 loss to Melbourne Knights on Wednesday night. The chief wrecker for the Knights was their big Kiwi striker Hamish Watson who scored a hat trick. South’s defence never got to grips with Watson’s physical presence.

After the visitors made a bright start, winning several corners, they were caught short at the back, on transition through a Knights counter-attack which led to Watson receiving the ball on the edge of the penalty box with just young South full back Bruce Djiba barring his way. A quick step inside and a shot from his right boot, wrong footed South keeper Nikola Roganovic, to give Watson and the Knights the opening goal of the match in the ninth minute.

The Knights threatened to double their lead but South equalised from a set piece against the run of play when defender Kristian Konstantinidis rose above his marker to nod the ball into the net in the 27th minute. The Knights responded almost immediately by taking the lead again when a Watson header from a Mikulic cross found the back of the net.

South was forced to make a first half substitution with Perry Lambropoulos coming on to replace an injured Kostas Stratomitros as the holding midfielder. South continued to look vulnerable to the Knights’ purposeful counterattacks with Mohamad Awad and Watson looking dangerous.

After the break the Knights again pushed forward looking for a third goal, whilst South struggled to mount coherent attacks. An awful defensive mix-up between South’s keeper and defender gifted the Knights and Watson their third goal in the 70th minute, before South striker Billy Konstantinidis gave South fans some hope with a 75th minute goal through a far post header from a Gerry Sylaidos cross. South sub Leigh Minopoulos then had a chance to equalise only to fire a weak shot at Knights keeper Jordan Gifkins. Instead, minutes later at the other end, the Knights scored a fourth and final goal of the match when midfielder Ivan Grgic headed home a corner, sending the Knights through to the Dockerty Cup semi-finals and the FFA Cup Rd of 32 at South’s expense.

The night before South’s loss, Oakleigh Cannons also came to grief in their FFA Cup qualifier/ Dockerty Cup quarter final tie, losing away to Hume City 2-3 in a penalty shoot-out after the match ended scoreless following extra time. The Cannons had keeper John Honos to thank for reaching penalties in the first place after he made several excellent saves to deny Hume City in extra time. But it was Hume’s keeper Michael Weier who proved the match-winner in the penalty shoot-out saving three out of five Cannons’ penalty kicks.