Newcastle Olympic will be out for revenge against Edgeworth on Wednesday night when they meet again at Darling Street Oval for a place in the Australia Cup round of 32.
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Edgeworth and Olympic won on Saturday, along with Broadmeadow and Lambton Jaffas, to make the last four in Northern NSW qualifying. Magic host Jaffas on Wednesday night for the other NNSW spot in the national draw.
Olympic faced the toughest task of the four on Saturday and they prevailed 2-0 over third-placed NPL side Charlestown Azzurri at Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility. Lachlan West scored late in each half for Olympic.
His first came from a flick on by Tom O'Connor off a long ball from keeper Adam Pearce. Jed Hornery set up West's second in a counterattack.
"The first 20 minutes, I thought we played really well and created three clear-cut chances to score and didn't take any," Olympic coach Paul DeVitis said.
"Then the one we did score was a lot more direct.
"Our goal was to keep a clean sheet, so we were very pleased with that.
"They created a few chances and Pearcey did really well with a couple of good saves. And Marcus Duncan made a brilliant last-ditch tackle at 1-0 up, so we had to defend. Charlestown were good. Overall it was a pretty tight, even game."
Edgeworth had no troubles at Inverell, downing the hosts 7-0, while NPL leaders Jaffas beat four-tier club Newcastle Croatia 5-1, and Broadmeadow trounced Alstonville 9-0 at LMRFF.
The Darling Street Oval match-up on Wednesday is a repeat of last year at the same stage. The Eagles won 2-1 in extra-time then hosted Western United in a 4-0 loss in the round of 32.
DeVitis said his squad won't be short of motivation against Edgeworth.
"Obviously we'll be looking for a bit of a revenge from that game last year, and they touched us up a couple of weeks ago [4-0 in the NPL], so we'll be highly motivated for it," DeVitis said.
"And I think it's good going in with a win over a solid NPL team, so I think that will give the boys a lot of confidence."
Kane Treble and Jacob Pepper were unavailable for Olympic on Saturday. DeVitis said Treble would return against Edgeworth, while Pepper was a possibility.
Ryan Feutz and Mason King scored hat-tricks for Edgeworth, who rested Seth Clark, Flynn Goodman and Aaron Oppedisano.
An early ankle injury to striker Kale Bradbery was the only negative on Saturday for Jaffas. The injury appeared minor but Bradbery could miss Wednesday's game.
Lambton led 4-0 at halftime and coach David Tanchevski rested Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Pat Bond and Matt Cahill at half-time. Newcastle Croatia scored in the dying minutes.
On Friday night, Cooks Hill defeated Lake Macquarie 4-1 at home in the NPL to rise to 12 points. Lakes are second last on three.
Craig Kerry
Craig Kerry is a sports reporter for the Newcastle Herald.
Craig Kerry is a sports reporter for the Newcastle Herald.
