18 May 2023
By James Mullan
Northbridge FC is now only one win away from the finals of the Australia Cup after four grueling preliminary rounds. The Australia Cup is the equivalent of English football’s FA Cup – a knockout competition between every senior club in the nation regardless of league or division.
It is made up of association clubs like Northbridge who play in the Northern Suburbs Football Association (NSFA) Premier Division, a regional competition, as well as higher tier clubs who compete in the NSW League 1, 2, 3 and the NPL as well as the 32 professional A-League clubs.
Coming this far is a huge achievement for the club as the only association club left standing in NSW. Northbridge started their campaign with a thrilling 5-3 win over Cronulla. Next round back at home they had a closer game against Wyoming FC, but handled them 2-0 under the bright lights of Cammeray Oval. Their next game was against NSW Division 1 team Dunbar Rovers who proved to be an extremely tough opponent. Despite this, the boys in the red and white stripes came out on top with a grind it out 1-0 win. In Round 6, of the competition Northbrudge faced another NSW Division 1 team, Mounties Wanderers. This was no problem, even playing away, Northbridge took the game out 3-0 thanks to goals from Michael Cole, Hugo Forlico and Alex Partridge.
Now the team is within reach of the round of 32 which opens up the competition Australia-wide. The preliminary rounds are only played within the state. Only four NSW clubs will advance to this next stage with 10 spots allocated to A-League teams and the remaining 18 spots divided up between the other states and territories proportional to their number of competing clubs.
Who Northbridge will face next is yet to be decided, pending other results but we it will be a NPL side. Either way the squad is already punching well above its weight and if they can win one more game will set the club up for a huge boost.
In their local competition, the NSFA Premier Division Northbridge FC is sitting in 4th place, with 4 wins and 2 losses. Meanwhile fellow local club North Sydney United remain winless after 6 rounds.