Kingston City has knocked South Melbourne out of the running for the Australia Cup, pulling off a 4-3 upset at Lakeside Stadium on Tuesday 11 April.
Speaking with Neos Kosmos, Kingston City FC’s co-coach Peter ‘Gus’ Tsolakis gave some insight into what he described as an “obviously tough game.”
“It always is against South,” he states “especially considering their current form.”
They’re a team Tsolakis spent a year and a half in charge of between 2011 and 2013, as well as making 160 National Soccer League appearances for the side as a player from the late ’80s to early ’90s.
Tsolakis went on to say that having gone up against them twice in the preseason, heading into the game Kingston were firm about their chances of matching up well with the ‘blue and whites’.
“We didn’t fear them,” Tsolakis says.
‘Hellas’ opened the scoring on Tuesday night with a deft penalty shot from Max Mikkola (22′), which sailed past the keeper nestling neatly into the net.
The Clayton South side equalised soon after, when Trent Skapetis delivered a stunning solo goal (29′) over the heads of South’s defence.
But South Melbourne edged ahead just before half-time thanks to a soaring header by Ajak Riak (45′).
Not to be deterred, Kingston again brought the scores equal at 2-2 when Peter Skapetis hoisted a header (66′) of his own past the keeper’s gloves.
“The Skapetis brothers, they’re very, very good,” Tsolakis says, recalling the duo’s efforts on game night.
“Peter’s got a bit of experience from overseas, he went over to England for a few years as a young man.”
“Both him and his brother Trent, they’re very positive attack minded players,” he explains, describing each as “a valuable asset.”
South’s Marco Jankovic secured his team’s third goal (69′) with yet another header off a corner from Mikkola, but it wasn’t even six minutes later when Trent Skapetis evened the tally at three-all (75′) off the back of a penalty.
“They’ve been in incredible form, both have gotten us five goals a piece this season and that’s not counting Tuesday night,” Tsolakis remarks.
With scores tied in the final ten minutes of play, Kingston’s Keisuke Honda ripped through the field at break-neck pace to find the ball and send it flying into the net (82′) to seal the game and deliver his club to the next round.
When asked about Honda’s stellar last-minute performance, Tsolakis had this to say.
“Honda was part of the plan going in. He’s played regularly through the season and we thought ‘look lets give him a bit of a rest’ and put him in on the tail end, so we started the match with Yianni Danigelis who’s just got blistering pace,” he told Neos Kosmos.
“We thought ‘in the last 15 let’s throw in Honda…’,” the rest as they say, is history.
With their win against South Melbourne in hand, Kingston City look forward to a home game against Heidelberg United in the fifth round of the VIC Australia Cup Preliminary.
“You might consider it a bit unlucky, to go up against the two biggest Greek clubs in consecutive rounds,” Tsolakis mused, “but I suppose if you’re gonna go through you might as well take the big scalps on the way.”
