By Tim Warren
Hume City are through to the FFA Cup Round-of-16 after defeating a proud Tigers FC side 2-0 on Wednesday night at Deakin Stadium during the Round-of-32 proceedings.
The Cooma-based side will not progress any further in Australia’s largest national knockout football competition, after winning the Federation Cup earlier in the year against Canberra FC.
Hume City made the perfect start when Mark Ochieng put the ball in the back of the net, following a wonderful backheel from James Brown in the box.
Tigers midfielder Jose Defilippi received a yellow card in the 20th minute from referee Tim Danaskos for a late challenge on Mitch Cooper and Tigers’ best chance of the first half came shortly after when Darren Bailey whipped in a free kick that landed at the feet of Laurence Redmond who jabbed the ball towards goal but was cleared off the line by Benjamin Bowler.
Hume City doubled their advantage in the 32nd minute when Bowler’s long-distance strike deflected off Tony Spaseski and lobbed over Tigers keeper Jakob Cole.
The hosts were unlucky not to claim a goal back when Nahuel Guerrero charged down Hume City keeper Michael Weier’s attempted long pass which deflected on top of the net, but Hume had a great opportunity to seemingly put the game to bed before half time when Marko Delic collected the ball just outside the box but was unable to put the curled shot on target.

Mark Shields was a threat throughout but was handled well by the disciplined Hume backline.
The final goal scoring chance of the first half came to Hussain Fureje, who had his low-driven shot pushed wide of the upright by Weier as Hume City took a promising 2-0 lead into the break, but with the game still open for a Tigers comeback in the second half.
Goran Josifovski sparked the Tigers into gear to start the second period, when his shot was blocked for a corner – narrowly missing the target and not long after Matthew Lazarides had a great opportunity to give Hume City a 3-0 lead, however his shot from 20-yards floated over the bar.
The visitors would’ve been disappointed when George Howard blasted the ball over the crossbar from just three metres out following Mitch Cooper’s low cross and Tigers threw all players forward in stoppage time to steal a goal back, with even ‘keeper Jakob Cole pushing out of his own area for the set-piece.
The ball broke to Thomas Harris following the clearance, but his long-distance shot was cleared away by Michael Kita and the referee blew the full-time whistle.
Hume City peppered the goal face in the second half, although will worry little as the score line remained 2-0 at the close.
The Melbourne-based club will learn their fate for the round-of-16 after the completion of the current round in the upcoming fortnight.