The stage has been set for the League Cup final of Bendigo Amateur Soccer League and it will be an all-Goulburn Valley affair.
Tatura will go mano-e-mano with Shepparton South in a repeat of last year’s grand final tie, this time duking it out for some newly introduced mid-season silverware.
The Ibises booked passage to the big dance, to be held on August 6, by overpowering Shepparton United 3-1 to top their pool.
Coach Thomas Corso said his outfit was fortunate to head into the break with parity on Sunday, but found a second gear after half-time to outrun the Blues at Howley Oval.
“We definitely got off to a slow start, I don’t think we expected them to play the way they did ― there were quite a few differences between the first time we played them,” he said.
“But we rode it out, made a couple of changes midway through the first half which we seem to be doing more frequently at the moment.
“We were pretty lucky to go 1-1 at half-time, I made it clear to the boys we were very lucky to be in that position.
“In the second half our attitude and everything was much better, we just pulled them apart by the end of it.”
Whatever Corso had on the whiteboard pre-game was reshuffled 25 minutes in as Tatura was forced into early change, losing defender Emre Celik.
Playing in his first season back from an ACL tear three years ago, agony swept Celik as he cruelly went down clutching his ankle.
It pushed Fraser Gosstray to enter the game prematurely in his first game back from an MCL injury in round three.
United then capitalised on the disruption, scoring minutes before half-time.
Blues coach Lewis Coyle tapped home a cross to hand his side what would be a short-lived lead, with Tatura’s Damian Russo the unlikeliest candidate to rocket the ball from distance in the 44th minute.
Cooper Gosstray bundled a Corso whip over the line not long after the restart, and it was younger brother Fraser to round the keeper in the 80th minute and mark his return with emphatic prowess to establish a two-goal buffer.
United’s wiz Toby Azhar was shown a second yellow late in the piece to rub salt into the wounds, and with a possible treble on the cards for Tatura, Corso said there’s no shortage of belief within the Ibises ranks currently.
“I think it’s a privilege to play in the cup final, the way I see it it’s another piece of silverware we can win, so we’ll be putting everything into it, and it’s just another warm up game for finals,” Corso said.
“We strongly believe we can go for everything this year, we’ve had discussions about the cup and the league and whatnot, but to us, any game we want to win.
“We’re treating them all as learning experiences to get better before finals which is our main focus.”
Meanwhile, South also progresses to the final despite falling to Eaglehawk 2-1.
Often a hard taskmaster at its home fortress, Eaglehawk chimed in with two quick goals after half-time with Sean Grant’s late penalty a consolation for South.
Rob Harmeston’s side finished its group level on points with Eaglehawk, but a +2 goal difference has it locked in for the August 6 decider.
In the women’s League Cup, Shepparton United moves through to the final after powering past Tatura 5-0.
Maria Villani had her shooting boots on as she struck a hat-trick to hand the Blues their first shot at a trophy this season, with United set to meet Colts at a venue yet to be decided.