By Tara Murray
Gisborne can finally celebrate finishing second and earning promotion in FFV state league 5 west.
Having last played in the third last round of the season, it’s been a tough couple of weeks for the Sky Blues as they played the waiting game for the final round of matches.
With Keningston City exiting the competition and a bye in the final round, the Sky Blues had to rely on results to finish second behind Westside Strikers.
Even then, it was always going to be a tough ask for third placed Keilor Wolves to over take them. The Wovles needed to win their last two games by a total of 16 goals.
On Saturday, a Wolves draw with the Melton Phoenix, ended their promotion hopes and sealed the Sky Blues.
Sky Blues coach Danny Ciantar said it had been a hard couple of weeks.
“It’s a funny way to end the season,” he said. “You never know with footy, so you can’t celebrate until the fat lady sings.
“We all went down to watch Keilor and Melton. It would have been nice to play and finish the season on a high.”
Having finally sealed promotion, Ciantar said there was a few celebrations on Saturday night.
For Ciantar, who was in his first year coaching the side, promotion was always the aim.
“Credit to the boys they worked extremely hard this year,” he said. “We believed we could be on of the best sides in the competition and it’s come to fruition in the end.
“We started preseason on January 4 and the hard work as paid off.
“They are ecstatic.”
Ciantar said they would start preparing for next season in the near future. He said while he hadn’t yet signed on for next season, he didn’t think there would be any problems when he sat down with the club to discuss coaching again.
“Hopefully we can be competitive in state league 4.”
