There may have been a late venue switch away from their spiritual home, but Wollongong United striker Jeremy Flanagan hopes their fans can turn Ian McLennan Park into a fortress when Green Gully comes to town on Wednesday night.
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United will create history when they become the first grassroots association team to compete in an Australian Cup national round of 32 fixture. The clash was set to be played at Macedonia Park, however, organisers announced on Monday afternoon that the match had been moved to the region's sole synthetic field at Kembla Grange due to persistent rain over the past few weeks.
For Flanagan and his teammates, it shapes as one of the biggest games of their careers, alongside the 2020 Illawarra Premier League grand final. However, rather than being overawed by Wednesday's occasion on the big stage, United welcome the challenge - even with the late move away from Macedonia Park.
"It feels like a second home for us up there. We've played grand finals on there, semi-finals and Cup games up there, so we feel comfortable up there. Unfortunately there won't be any cevapis, but there will be 500 plus United fans singing the songs. And hopefully we can bring it home for the lads," Flanagan told the Mercury.
"The boys are buzzing. It's in the top two or threes games [of my career], but each Cup final or special game day all feel the same. You'd die to win and we've been in this situation before, so we're ready to go.
"I did a little bit of research and Green Gully are one of seven association sides to knock out an A-League side, and they're currently sitting fourth in NPL1 in Melbourne. You know what you're going to get with teams like this, they're going to well oiled and play good football. But at the end of the day, they've got to come up here, so hopefully it will be a mountain to climb for them."
Green Gully gained a reputation as the Cup's "giant-killers" in 2016 when they took down the Melbourne Knights and A-League outfit Central Coast Mariners in successive games.
Fast forward six years and it's Wollongong United who are vying for a similar tag.
Billy Tsovolos's side booked their spot in the national draw of the knockout competition when they beat NPL club St George City last month. United fought back from a goal down that night to win via second-half headers from Kyah Jovanovski and Klime Sekutkoski.
That result followed last-ditch 2-1 and 1-0 victories over NPL outfits Dunbar Rovers and Blacktown City.
Flanagan doesn't believe that United have developed a pattern of getting out of jail late in Cup contests, however, he thinks the wins show they're willingness to do anything to triumph.
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"I'm the type of player that will do anything for the team. If that means playing 10, 20, 30 or 90 minutes, or playing right back, I'd do anything for this team - and so would my teammates. We just want to see the club go forward," the 24-year-old said.
"We have this never-say-die attitude. We've been backs-against-the-wall, coming from 1-0 down at halftime to score late winners. You can see with our record that we don't really have a 20-goals per season player, we all pitch in and that's what works for us I guess.
"It's been a dream come true to get this far, and I'm really looking forward to Wednesday night."
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Joshua Bartlett
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
