City FC’s home comfort

GOLD Coast City FC coach Grae Piddick says his side is positioned for another deep run into the FFA Cup after drawing an all important home game for the Round of 32.

Gold Coast will host West Australian state league division one leaders Western Knights in the next round of the national competition.

Piddick couldn’t have been happier with the draw after avoiding a meeting with an ALeague team and forcing the Knights, who sit in the third tier nationally, to make the long haul flight from Perth to the Gold Coast.

“We have got the advantage of being at home so from that point of view that is probably what is most important,” Piddick said.

“We are quite happy with that draw.”

Piddick was at the helm when Gold Coast, known as Palm Beach Sharks at the time, were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the FFA Cup in 2014 by A-League side the Central Coast Mariners.

A year later they suffered a similar fate, being eliminated from the cup by Western Sydney Wanderers.

Current Gold Coast City players including Justyn Mckay, Riley Dillon, Eoghan Murphy, Nikola Mirkovic, Roman Hofmann and Jarrod Kyle were all part of those campaigns. Piddick said the experience bolstered their hopes of progressing beyond the round of 32.

“There are quite a few players that were part of that so there is a bit of experience dealing with it and they should be good to go,” Piddick said.

“It’s just about making the most of the opportunity.

“It’s Cup football and it’s knockout so you have to be on your game and the excitement of the occasion builds the more and more you go deeper in the draw.

“It builds a lot of excitement and confidence in the players if you can win that first game and kick on from there.”

Gold Coast are leading the NPL Queensland competition and Piddick said the side was as strong as the one of 2014.

“It was a very strong side that year (2014),” Piddick said.

“In 2015 it was a little bit different because we were so good in 2014 most of the side was decimated. I would suggest our squad is better than 2015 and on par with 2014.”

Football Federation Australia will finalise the date, time and venues for each game of the upcoming round on Monday, July 3.