The Strikers marked their return to the top grade with the surprise of the opening round, holding Wagga United to a 3-3 draw at Rawlings Park on Sunday.

Cootamundra struck first and led 1-0 and 2-1 before some Kai Watts magic sent Wagga United into the main break 3-2 ahead.

Rather than let United run away with the game in the second half, the Strikers dug in and Brenton Forsyth's third goal of the game was enough to see the visitors share the points.

Godbier was thrilled with the result and believes it justifies the club's decision to return to Pascoe Cup after opting for reserve grade last year.

"The first thing I said when I came back to the club and they gave me that option I said no we play at the highest level we can and that's going to be first grade," he said.

"We're going to develop these kids that are in year nine and year 10 because there's not a lot to keep them at home in Coota, once they do year 12 we lose them, so we give them this opportunity now and 12-24 months down the track they'll be better for it and more competitive, which is the goal down the track."

Godbier could not have been happier with his men's efforts in the opening week.

MORE SPORT NEWS

"We won that second half 1-0 and kept a clean sheet in the second half. I'm absolutely stoked, over the moon," he said.

"From where we've come from the last 12 months to what we looked at having when we first kicked a ball in pre-season this year with these 15-year-old young men, I'm just over the moon for them, I really am, to get a result out of that game."

Forsyth impressed with his ability to hit the scoreboard for Cootamundra, while Steve Armstrong, Nick Ashe, Rhys Neate and 'keeper Blake Thompson earned praise from the coach.

Godbier saw enough to believe his team will be competitive each week.

"I think we will be. Take nothing away from Wagga United, they're a quality side and there's quality footballers in there and I've worked with a few of them at the Wanderers. We're under no illusions that (Sunday was) going to be hard but I'm stoked," he said.

Wagga United co-coach Aaron Mo'ane was disappointed not to come away with the three points.

"I reckon we could have probably taken a bit more from the game. The boys started very slow but once we warmed into it we were definitely the dominant team. We just couldn't put it away," Mo'ane said.

"We literally kept control of the second half and that whole time we were really, really unlucky."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: