A clash with an A-Leagues side looms on the horizon as the Wolves prepare to enter unknown territory in the FFA Cup.
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The Cup's round of 16 was drawn on Monday afternoon, with Luke Wilkshire's men picked to host the Central Coast Mariners in the Illawarra on a date to be confirmed.
Due to travel restraints caused by COVID, the Wollongong side were placed in the east zone group alongside A-Leagues clubs Western Sydney, Macarthur, Central Coast and Sydney FC; and NSW NPL sides Sydney Olympic, Tigers FC and Apia Leichhardt.
Football Australia intends to fully open up the nationwide competition from the quarter finals, with plans to be flexible with scheduling, with the A-League Men's competition kicking off this weekend.
The Wolves already created club history earlier this month by progressing past the Cup's round of 32 for the first time, with a 3-0 victory over NPL rivals Mount Druitt at Popondetta Park. Peter Simonoski's goal just before halftime proved the turning point, before Bilal Belkadi and Lachlan Scott also scored in the second half.
However, after the game, coach Wilkshire said his Wolves had more to achieve in this year's Cup.
"It's history, it's something that's never been done before and we tick another box. But that's not it, now we want to go further and continue to make these benchmarks higher. We want to keep improving and we want to keep winning," he said.
"It doesn't matter for us who we get next, we've got a little bit more time to get players fully match fit and to where we want to be. We only had three-and-a-half weeks preparation leading into this game, which isn't long when we've had something like 130 days out from competitive football."
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