Cairns takes it up to Sydney’s finest
FOR just over an hour on Tuesday night at Barlow Park, Cairns FC and almost 4000 fans dared to dream.
Were the semi-professionals from Far North Queensland about to topple the defending FFA Cup and A-League Premiers in one of the biggest Cup upsets in history?
It sure looked like the boys in orange and white were about to send Innisfail junior Steve Corica and his Sydney FC squad packing.
Teenager Ryan Cavanah netted his first goal of 2018 in the 16th minute of the Round of 16 contest as Sydney failed to clear the ball and he pounced.
The Far North faithful gave the Cairns FC squad a standing ovation at the end of the first half as they held a 1-0 lead.
Could the plucky Cairns squad hold out the glamour club of Australian football for another 45 minutes and write their name into Cup folklore?
They battled admirably but the dam wall was eventually going to break.
Sydney wasted two chances early in the second half as skipper Alex Brosque fired wide while defender Jop Van Der Linden hit the post from a freekick from just outside the box.
Brosque broke the deadlock soon after and Trent Buhagiar doubled their advantage.
Cairns midfielder Crios O’Hare had a penalty saved by Sydney goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne to keep the visitors ahead and Sydney held on.
Cairns boss Danny Graystone could not have been prouder of his men following their lion-hearted effort.
“The longer that it went on when we were 1-0 up, Sydney started to repeat their passages of play, which made them a little bit predictable,” Graystone said.
“At the hour mark, I was thinking, ‘We could do it here and beat them,’ particularly how the game was going.
“We were superb. It was a big ask but it was great to see our players go out and try and implement our game plan.”