Reigning FFA Cup holders Adelaide United remains on course to make its third FFA Cup final in a row after progressing to the semi-finals with a 1-0 quarter final home win over fellow A-League team Newcastle Jets last Tuesday evening.

The Reds were beneficiaries of goal keeping howlers which seemed to be a recurrent theme in this week’s quarter-finals. The visiting Jets were reduced to 10 men early on when first choice keeper Lewis Italiano saw red early for a clumsy last man challenge outside the box which prevented the Reds taking an early lead.

More calamitous was substitute keeper Glen Moss’s failed attempt to make a regulation save of a long range effort.

Instead of saving the shot, the ball slipped through Moss’s hands allowing Adelaide’s Al Hassan Toure the easiest of tap-ins for the match winner.

United’s semi- final opponent will be fellow A-League team Central Coast Mariners which left it till very late in their quarter final match against Victorian NPL club Hume City, to score an injury time winner. Just when it seemed the semi-professionals of Hume had held out to take the match to extra time, the Mariners scrambled home a stoppage time winner through Abraham Majok.

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Rounding out the three A-League teams to progress to the semis is Melbourne City, whose 3-0 quarter – final win over Western Sydney Wanderers on Wednesday, was the most impressive of the four quarter final results. Another early goal keeping error proved pivotal in the game, with the Wanderers’ keeper Lopar’s misguided attempt to keep the ball in play gifting possession and a soft goal to new City signing Craig Noone. Noone’s team mate Jamie MacLaren scored with a neat flick at the near post to double his team’s lead before Noone completed the scoring and his brace late in the match. The win earns City a semi-final berth against the last remaining NPL club to reach the semis, Brisbane Strikers.

The Strikers held off a late challenge from Melbourne NPL 2 club Moreland Zebras to win 3-2 at home on Wednesday evening.

The Strikers will be a attempting to create history by becoming the first NPL club to break through the semi-final ceiling and make it all the way through to the FFA Cup Final. However it faces a steep step up in class when it hosts the full time professionals on Melbourne City. This is especially so given the Strikers have completed their season, and City is approaching peak fitness on the eve of the new A-League season.