CITY VIEWS | Bring On Wednesday…
At the final whistle tonight a combined focus turned to Wednesday night for Melbourne City and their fans. Whilst happy with the three points the most important part of the game tonight was everyone escaped injury free and should find themselves available for the biggest game in club history.
Some don’t consider the FFA Cup on par with a league title or Grand Final win but when you’ve experienced six seasons of sparse results, the opportunity for silverware becomes of the upmost importance. City were luckily handed a home tie thanks to the FFA’s need to expand the game down in Melbourne and grow the second Melbourne team before the much awaited expansion takes place. The league will be in a much stronger position if the second Melbourne team (City) can become successful on and off the field. Sydney FC were probably better deserving of hosting the game but with Tim Cahill and City making their first ever final of any sort the pendulum swung South.
Considering the game will take place in Melbourne gives City a slight advantage, but only because of their horror record on the road.
Taking a walk around AAMI Park today you could see how Wednesday’s final was on the mind of many, with numerous supporters not ever worried about the impact of the Phoenix result. One thing I did take away from today’s crowd was the numerous Melbourne Heart shirts, jumpers and scarves. Before City Football Group backed up the money truck and took over the club we were never successful on the park, and in the final season run on the smell of an oily rag. Results were not as important as seeing the club grow organically, and if we’re being honest we knew Heart weren’t going to win football trophies any time soon, but we wanted to develop a football club, a group of supporters were proud to attend and create a community atmosphere. A few wins against Victory every now and again managed to keep us pretty happy.
When the City announcement came to fruition we lost many supporters because of the Manchester City factor and also because many were scared we were losing out identity and selling our soul. The chance of winning silverware dramatically increased overnight but were we willing to walk down this path with City Football Group. There were times where I thought we compromised our identity but when you see many supporters faces light up when talking about Wednesday night and what it represents to the club you begin to realise our identity has changed, but importantly hasn’t been lost.
Whether you follow the Heart or City moniker you will stand firmly behind the squad on Wednesday night.
It won’t happen, but I would like to see many of those Heart fans we lost along the way come to AAMI Park on Wednesday night and experience the night with all the other Heart/City fans. This night belongs to you as much as anyone else standing in the stands than night. If you can’t bring yourself to support City on the night it’s fully understandable but the players wearing City shirts on the night will be representing every supporter that has braved every poor result throughout our short history.
Wednesday night presents the opportunity for the club to win their first FFA Cup, but also presents the chance for supporters to unite and get behind our team.
Whatever the result on the night City supporters will get to experience a home Cup final and will be stronger for the experience. When you look at our sporadic results over the last few months and in 2015/16 you sense City is a better Cup team than a League option. Ninety minutes stand between us and history, let’s hope our boys play to their potential on the night and are holding the trophy aloft at the end of the night.
Come on City…
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