Wagga City Wanderers made history in Canberra on Saturday as a 3-3 draw with White Eagles qualified the club for their first senior finals campaign.
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The Wanderers will embark on finals for the first time next weekend after securing their place in the top four with a 3-3 draw against Canberra White Eagles at Woden Park.
A Matt Menser double helped the Wanderers to a 3-2 lead, before the White Eagles struck in the 85th minute to clinch an important draw.
It was enough to confirm a finals spot for Wanderers, with the exact make up of the top four to be decided after a game between Yoogali and ANU on Sunday afternoon.
The Wanderers will either play Yoogali or Queanbeyan in a grand final qualifier.
Wanderers coach Michael Babic was pleased to get the job done and can now look forward to finals.
"We knew a draw would be enough for us. We didn't play for a draw but we were comfortable in the second half," Babic said.
"We led for most of the second half and we knew that they would finish strongly and they threw numbers forward and got a goal but it was all too little, too late. I think 3-3 was an entertaining game and our performance this week was definitely much better than last week.
"We set ourselves the goal of qualifying for finals, we knew what we had to do. It would have been nice to come away with the win because that would have been a much nicer feeling but at the end of the day, getting the three goals and the one point is enough to make sure that we qualify.
"They were pretty desperate because they can still make finals but they really needed the win to be safe so they threw everything at us and the fact that we were able to stand up to that is confidence building definitely."
Babic was thrilled for the group to make finals for the first time, and in particular, co-captain and goalkeeper Rob Fry.
"Part of our pre-match talk (on Saturday), Carl Pideski raised that Frysie's been there for a long time, through all the ups and downs, and there hasn't been very many ups," Babic siad.
"We sort of dedicated (Saturday's) performance to Frysie, because he's seen the club through a lot and he's been waiting for this for a long time.
"It's satisfying to know that we achieved our goal. We set ourselves a goal of making the top four and some very good sides have missed out so it's very satisfying to get the job done but equally satisfying is that both the 23s and first grade are in the finals. We train a lot of the year as a squad, we train together and all the boys support each other so it's very satisfying to go into the finals with two teams."
Menser and Ano Matowe were the standouts for the Wanderers on Saturday. Matowe came in for the injured Isaac Brooker and produced a 'phenomenal' performance, that included a special first half goal.
The Wanderers will now go into finals just two wins away from the NPL Two premiership and Babic believes his group can achieve anything.
"Finals football is different. We've just got to play two good games of football now, doesn't matter who is in front of us, we've got to turn up on the day and play to our full potential and I think we can scare anyone that's left now," he said.
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