It's official - Woonona are ready for their first ever Illawarra Premier League finals series.
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The Sharks booked their spot in this year's IPL finals with one round to spare following a 1-0 win over Tarrawanna at Ocean Park on Saturday afternoon.
In a low-scoring affair, a Tomohiro Ishii header in the 30th minute proved the difference between the two sides.
Woonona has now accumulated 20 competition points, meaning they can't slip out of the top five. And with a clash looming against the winless South Coast United next week, it's likely the Sharks will sew up a second place finish.
Coach Dan McGoldrick told the Mercury that he was "ecstatic" to book their spot in this year's IPL finals.
"We celebrated our 130th year last year, I think we're the second or third oldest football club in the world," he said.
"I'm ecstatic for the club, ecstatic for the lads and personally, it's obviously very satisfying as well. This is my third year [at Woonona]. We had a tough first season, then we almost made the semi's last year and we've made them this year."
Ironically, it was Tarrawanna that caused the Sharks to miss last year's semi finals.
In the last game of that season, Woonona had a 1-all draw with Tarrawanna - two teams fighting for a finals spot. As a result, the Blueys kept their campaign alive while the Sharks missed out.
"We had multiple chances to score and didn't [in that 2019 game]," McGoldrick said.
"Today was much more of a lottery of a game with the breeze, it was unbelievably difficult. We won ugly today, we were very good in the first half and they were very good in the second half.
"The thing that got us through was a little bit of luck and our defensive shape and discipline. We scrapped like mongrel dogs today, which is what I expected we needed to do because I watched 'Tarra' play the week before and they have a good young side."
And while the Sharks will celebrate, the Blueys were left to rue a missed opportunity at Ocean Park.
Captain Mitch Ferraro said it was a disappointing loss, especially because his side was arguably the better team on the day.
"We went down 1-0 about 30 minutes in and it was a bit frustrating in those conditions," he said.
"But I felt like we had the most of the game. We had a few chances. The ball went over the bar, the ball hit the bar. We had chances there to take it... it was a bit frustrating coming out of that."
Tarrawanna will now keep a close eye on the other IPL results this weekend. The side is in a race to the finals with Albion Park, Wollongong Olympic and Bellambi.
The Blueys will meet Olympic in a last round showdown at Tarrawanna Oval next Sunday.
"We will go back to training and get the buzz back up," Ferraro said.
"It's disappointing to have a loss but we will recoup, get back into it and go again next week."