Heidelberg United smashes Bentleigh Greens to book Australia Cup Round of 32 spot

Heidelberg United’s rich history of reaching the national stages of the Australia Cup continues, booking a Round of 32 place with a thumping win over Bentleigh Greens.

Josh Pin in action for Heidelberg United.

Heidelberg United has a chance to write another chapter in it’s rich Australia Cup history.

The Warriors will return to the Cup’s national stage after a booking a Round of 32 place on Tuesday night with a thumping 6-0 win over old rival Bentleigh Greens at Kingston Heath.

United has now reached the Round of 32 six times and previously gone on to make four quarter-finals.

The man who led it to those quarter-finals, George Katsakis, is now in charge of Bentleigh but was powerless to stop his former club’s progression.

Josh Pin and Nick Olsen both scored braces, while Ben Collins and Ben Davine also found the back of the net.

Dominic Falla in action for Heidelberg United.

Eoin Ashton in action for Heidelberg United.

Warriors coach John Anastasiadis said it was a fantastic achievement for the club.

“The boys were clinical, after the loss we had on the weekend, coming back with a win like that was great,” Anastasiadis said.

“We put in a great shift, the score was irrelevant, the result to get into the Round of 32 was the goal.

“It’s something big clubs like Heidelberg always strives for, being involved in national competitions, and we’ll wait until next week to see what the draw brings us.

It was good to see a healthy crowd on a cold, freezing Tuesday night too – there’s still plenty of life in the game.”

The connection between Heidelberg forwards Pin and Asahi Yokokawa put the Warriors in control, combining for two first-half goals.

Pin opened the scoring in the 18th minute, smashing the ball into the roof of the net from an Yokokawa cut-back and the Japanese import’s through ball set his teammate’s second in the 37th.

Collins made it three just before the hour mark, heading home a Yokokawa corner after Greens keeper Andrew Withers misjudged the flight.

It was four assists for Yokokawa just two minutes later as he unselfishly teed up Nick Olsen for his first.

Olsen then did it all himself to make it 5-0.

Eoin Ashton won the ball in midfield and the former Young Socceroo sprinted 50m before slotting cooly past Withers.

Davine wrapped up the scoring, and made it four goals in 15 minutes, as he cleaned up the rebound after Ashton’s shot hit the post.

Anastasiadis couldn’t fault his players collective efforts.

“Josh always puts in the hard yards and gets his reward and Nick, it’s something we expect coming from the A-League,” he said.

“While these boys are scoring it’s the others doing the hard work for them, it’s a collective effort for someone to score goals.

“A lot of those boys don’t get the recognition in terms of the hard work they put in, it was really good to see a lot of the boys stepping up to the plate.

“I can’t fault anyone, Dom Falla and Mo (Aidara) in the midfield and Asahi up front with Josh, then Leo Mazis put in 11.5km of work on the wing.”

United will now return its focus to the league with a blockbuster derby against South Melbourne on Sunday at Olympic Village.

The Warriors will have an extra day’s rest with Hellas hosting St Albans in its Australia Cup tie on Wednesday night at Lakeside Stadium.

A win would see Heidelberg move back into NPL premiership contention, while a loss would see it fall 13 points behind its rival.

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“We’re talking the biggest derby in Australia at one stage,” Anastasiadis said.

“It’s always a big game and we’re going to go out there and try and get the three points because we don’t want to fall too far behind the front three.”

Elsewhere in the Australia Cup, NPL high-flyers Hume City hosts VPL1 club Caroline Springs George Cross and VPL1 outfit Kingston City tackles VPL2 leader FC Melbourne.

The round wraps up on Tuesday, June 18, when NPL heavyweights Oakleigh and Avondale clash at the Home of the Matildas.