A 6-1 trouncing at the hands of Western United Academy at the weekend in a relegation play-off means the Suns will play their football in National Premier League 3 next year.
With a strong travelling support base behind them at Broadmeadows’ Valley Park Events Centre, the Suns were powerless to resist a rampant Western United Academy, which dominated possession and simply outclassed its opposition across 90 minutes.
Things went from bad to worse for the men in orange on Saturday and they were fortunate to keep the scores deadlocked early in the piece after a number of United chances went begging in the opening minutes.
The game seemed to break open at the 27th minute mark, when Luke Duzel arrived late in the box to slam home a superb Christian Theoharous cross.
The ex-Melbourne Victory and Borussia Mönchengladbach forward was in the action minutes later, sending a free kick on the edge of the box under the Suns’ wall and past a hapless Lucas Enders.
United did not let up after half-time and Noah Holmes put his side three to the good with a towering header in the 48th minute.
Noah Botic tapped home after some fine work from Sabit Ngor to make it 4-0 just shy of the hour mark.
With promotion at this point almost a certainty, United wasn’t done yet.
Holmes got himself a brace with a rocket in the 81st minute, before Jake Najdovski slotted home United’s sixth in the 84th minute.
Zachary Balaburov pulled one back in the 89th minute to give the Suns a small consolation.
With its fate now decided Suns president Michael Criscera said the club’s focus would now be ‘’rebuilding’’ itself ahead of its NPL3 campaign in 2023.
“We’re disappointed with the result and to have to drop down to NPL3 — but it’s the reality of where we are at,” Criscera said.
“We’ll dust ourselves off and look to rebuild for next year, with the aim to hopefully fight our way back up.”
Criscera said harnessing youth next season would also be a focus and that spectators could expect more Suns youth products to feature in the senior side.
“We’ll obviously assess where we’re at as a club, looking back, we’ve been fortunate to have a lot of talent to draw upon locally,” he said.
“If you look at our history we’ve always had a good core group of players that we don’t have at our disposal any longer.
“This year, if you look at the positives, we’ve given the young guys the opportunity for more experience at this level.
“We’re looking to rebuild our core group based out of our kids that have come through the club.”
- The Suns will hold an annual general meeting on Wednesday, October 12.
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