Oakleigh Cannons squeeze past Brisbane City in Australia Cup thriller

Oakleigh Cannons have booked an Australia Cup quarter-final date against Sydney FC after a dramatic extra-time win over Brisbane City.

Oakleigh Cannons celebrate victory in the Australia Cup Round of 16.

Two Australia Cup matches, 10 goals for a red-hot Oakleigh Cannons.

The NPL Victoria club marched into the quarter-finals on Wednesday night with a thrilling 5-3 extra-time win over Queensland’s Brisbane City at Jack Edwards Reserve.

They’ll face A-League powerhouse Sydney FC after the Sky Blues knocked off fellow Victorians Bentleigh Greens 2-1 last week.

Remarkably, the Cannons have only reached the national stage twice in club history, 2015 and 2022, but made the last eight both times.

Coach Chris Taylor said it was a proud achievement for the club, which had to overcome a number of obstacles.

Oakleigh’s Aryn Williams celebrates his goal in extra-time.

Nicolas Niagioran celebrates his second goal for Oakleigh Cannons.

“Everyone’s delighted, we made hard work of it but considering the amount of players we had missing it’s a good result for us,” he said.

“It’s been a difficult season, we’ve got three starting defenders missing, Joe Knowles who’s probably been our best player this season is injured and Ryan Losty is also injured and our back-up keeper dislocated his shoulder.

“It was a great night for the club, to compete at this stage is very good and a lot of people recognise the name Oakleigh now, which can only be good for the club.”

Oakleigh looked to be cruising as Nicolas Niagioran put it two goals up inside 11 minutes and took a 3-1 lead through Joe Guest on the hour mark.

However, Brisbane City scored a minute later and found a dramatic equaliser deep into stoppage time as Matt Jones poked home in a goalmouth scramble to level the game 3-3 and sent it to extra-time.

Niagioran could have secured a hat-trick and likely wrapped up the match in the 70th minute but missed a penalty kick.

Despite the devastating end to 90 minutes, Oakleigh responded quickly as Guest netted his second after four minutes and then turned provider, whipping in a free-kick for Aryn Williams to head home and seal victory.

Guest finished with two goals and an assist, while Yuta Hirayama, ‎Fraser Hills and Jones were the scorers for Brisbane City.

Joe Guest on the run for Oakleigh Cannons.

Oakleigh’s Chris Lucas fends off two challengers.

Guest was pleased with the response in extra-time and for Niagioran, who’s played just 68 minutes in the league this season.

“That was disappointing (to concede so late), I’ll be honest, we’ve tried to work on the backline but we have been conceding quite a few goals at critical moments,” Taylor said.

“I thought we rose to the occasion in extra-time, which was fantastic by the boys.

“It’s been a tough season for Nic, he’s basically been warming the bench all season but he got the opportunity last night.

“I’m pleased for him, he’s well liked around the club and works very hard, so it was fantastic to see him get his reward.”

With one game to go in the league, Oakleigh has cemented a top-six spot despite a last-start 2-1 loss to strugglers St Albans.

The Cannons will face Hume City in the final home-and-away match before finals, while also juggling Australia Cup commitments.

And challenges don’t get much bigger than Sydney FC.

However, Taylor wouldn’t have it any other way.

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“The attraction is you’ve got players that want to go to the A-League so if you can play against an A-League team they can show off their abilities and maybe get picked up,” he said.

“For a club like ours being matched up against Sydney is quite a big achievement.

“I played against them a few years ago in the semi-finals with South Melbourne, so it’s a bit of deja vu I suppose.”

The quarter-final will be played at Jack Edwards Reserve with a date to be confirmed.