THERE’S NO KNOCKING THE STUFFING FROM THESE FFA CUP STALWARTS
IRELAND-BORN Eoghan Murphy and his good mate Nik Mirkovic are genuine stalwarts of Gold Coast City’s campaigns in the Westfield FFA Cup.
Between them, Murphy and Mirkovic have played all but one of City’s 15 Cup ties, including local and regional qualifiers, since the national club competition began in 2014 when the club was known as Palm Beach Sharks.
Murphy has played them all, skilled midfielder Mirkovic has missed one – and that was last year when Surfers Paradise Apollo upset City in the Coast qualifier at Duncan McKenna Field – when he had work commitments in Hong Kong.
The two will play together again tomorrow night in a round of 32 fixture against Perth club Western Knights at the Mallawa Drive complex.
“This is probably the most exciting part of the season,” 22-year-old local product Mirkovic said of the lure of the FFA Cup.
“It’s knockout and we did so well the first time around (in 2014) that each year everyone is up for it, everybody wants to play in it.
“It’s all exciting. You get upsets and there’s no room for errors.
“We are facing a team coming over from Perth that we’ve never seen, and they’ve probably never seen us.
“It all adds to the magic of such a competition.”
Murphy is the only City player not to miss a Cup match although coach Grae Piddick has been at the helm from the start of Cup campaigns.
Murphy, a 21-year-old defender, is looking forward to another fairytale run for City.
“FFA Cup time is always exciting, it always has that buzz around it,” Murphy said.
“Hopefully we can win and get into the limelight again in the quarter-finals.”
Murphy was actually sent off in extra-time of the 2015 round of 32 against South Melbourne at Cbus Super Stadium but was able to serve a one-match ban in the NPL competition and played in the Cup quarter-final loss to Westers Sydney Wanderers.
Mirkovic recalls one of the golden moments of the Cup when City (then Palm Beach) survived a classic marathon against Broadbeach United in a Coast qualifier in 2015.
Mirkovic scored a goal late in extra-time for a 3-3 scoreline that sent the tie into a penalty shootout which ended 12-11 City’s way after 150 minutes of tension.
That’s what the Cup is all about, says Mirkovic, the magic and sheer uncertainty.