Dramatic victory fuels Cairns FC’s top-four hopes

THE NPL planets would need to align but Cairns FC is not giving up hope of snaring a top-four spot.

The men from the Far North came from behind on Saturday night at Perry Park to claim a dramatic 5-3 victory, the club’s ninth win from its last 10 outings, against BrisKAZAN bane Strikers. In-form striker Joshua Taylor continued to climb the golden-boot leaderboard with a hat-trick, while Johnson Slotemaker and Chris O’Hare added the other two goals to secure the three points.

Danny Graystone’s side is sixth on the NPL ladder with 28 points, 14 points outside a top-four berth, but the firstyear Cairns FC coach is not giving up hope on an unlikely finals berth with seven rounds to play.

“It is going to be extremely difficult, we will be relying on other teams to drop points to make the finals,” Graystone said.

“We have momentum the moment.

“We want to win at every game and if we can win every game, we will see where it takes us.

“It will be a tough ask but we will need to take points off the teams above us.

“The way we are going, I would not put it past us to win most of the games for the rest of the season.”

Graystone is not overly worried about conceding three goals to the Strikers, if they can score five themselves.

“While we are outscoring teams, I do not think there is a reason to change that,” he said.

“A couple of their goals were quality goals as well, it was not our mistakes.”

Cairns FC hosts Olympic FC, which is in the top four, this Saturday evening at Barlow Park. Brisbane Strikers 3 Cairns FC 5 at Perry Park

Cairns FC goals:

J. Taylor (60) J. Taylor (20) C. O’Hare (59) J. Slotemaker (85) J. Taylor (90+2)

Brisbane Strikers goals:

J. Stevens (30) T. Clulow (76) H. Omori (56)