Wanderers cement status with dominant victory in Riverina Cup final

A massive crowd of over 600 people watched the two sides do battle on Thursday night at Rawlings Park and Wanderers coach Andy Heller was delighted that his side could claim the inaugural men's Riverina Cup.

"Yeah 100 per cent," Heller said.

"I think we had two maybe three players on their debuts and it was fantastic to watch them play.

"I think we controlled the game from start to finish and we showed why we are on top of our table at the moment."

The Wanderers were dangerous up forward as Samson Lucas, Thomas Yongai, Max Prest, Ashton Bourke and Zac Steele all found the back of the net against the Wolves.

Their victory follows on from the win by Albury Hotspurs, who claimed the women's Riverina Cup a couple of weeks ago.

Heller revealed the most pleasing aspect of the Wanderers performance was the confidence his young side played with.

"We won 5-0 on the weekend and won 5-0 against last night," he said.

"The boys at the moment the way they are playing football in the last two games, they haven't really gotten out of second gear and they've taken a 5-0 victory.

"The bit I keep trying to challenge them is sometimes you need to be ruthless and had we been ruthless last night then it would've been double digits.

"When we get into the league on Saturday which is where our focus is now, we'll come up against another test and opposition that we need to be ruthless against.

"But you can't complain when you are winning 5-0."

After a stellar team performance in the final Heller found it difficult to highlight individual efforts, however he did credit the work of some of their standout players.

"Zac Steele in the last couple of weeks he's found another gear," he said.

"The same with Samson Lucas, Max Prest and Nashwan (Kheder).

"Naser (Smoqy), the first 25 minutes I've never seen a centre back around here play a game of football like he did.

"In those first few minutes when it's fiery and it's an open game, they came at us a couple of times and Naser just shut it down and he was unbelievable.

"It's hard to pick anybody as I think everybody was fantastic, that obvious in a dominating performance.

"But in that first 25, Naser was unbelievable and then all of our forwards were clearly a handful."

Heller was one of the drivers behind the introduction of the Riverina Cup this year and he believed the competition had been used effectively by local clubs.

"For myself as a coach I've used it as a chance to find our first 11 and give opportunities to the 18's and 23's players," he said.

"They've then gone on to stake their claim as being starting first graders and we've built the team that we have.

"I think for the local clubs who are in the Pascoe and Albury competitions, it's a great start to the season to have such highly competitive games and it gets players keen to train and be ready for the season early.

"From the kick off of the season, teams just looked so much more ready and keen for the season ahead.

"I think it had the desired effect."

Heller was impressed with the turnout of support for the final and wanted to credit the work done to promote the interest in the competition.

"There was over 600 people there on a Thursday night watching a game of grassroots soccer," he said.

"I think you need to commend the Football Wagga board and Liam Dedini in development for driving the interest in it.

"Tolland had a fantastic run in and whilst we may have been the stronger team on the night, they had a really good run into the cup final and they were good competitors.

"We wish them all the best for the season."