FFA Cup campaign for Albany teams

Local teams Albany-Bayswater and Albany Rovers will begin their 2017 Westfield FFA Cup campaigns on Saturday in the WA preliminary rounds, with the two finalists booking a place in round 32 of the national competition alongside A-League clubs.

After competing in the 2015 preliminary rounds, in which they were knocked out by Bunbury Dynamos in the second round, Albany-Bayswater will try their luck again this weekend when they host Melville City FC at the North Road soccer grounds.

In their first attempt at the national knockout competition, Albany Rovers will head up the highway to tackle Woodvale at Timberlane Reserve in their first-round clash, also on Saturday afternoon.

In the WA preliminary rounds all regional, amateur, metro and masters teams enter in round 1 before State league and amateur premier clubs join in round 2 and all participating National Premier League clubs enter the competition in the third round.

The two finalists of the WA preliminaries will then go into the national round of 32 before a round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and the final, which was won by Melbourne City last year.

Albany-Bayswater captain Cain Pietropaolo said his club was looking forward to their home fixture.

“It’s really good,” he said.

“This is the second time we are playing in the cup.

“If you are in it, you are looking to win it but we’ll take it one game at a time. There is no scouting (of the opposition) so it’s hard to find out much about them.

“We’ve probably got the strongest squad we’ve had in a few years. We are young and exciting.”

Rovers captain Harry Smith said his side were eager to make their FFA Cup debut. “We are pretty happy with an away trip,” Smith said. “This cup gives any team on the day a chance and hopefully we can get past them.

“I think we have a strong team and hopefully Albany-Bayswater gets through as well.”

Both matches kick off at 3pm on Saturday, with the Albany-Bayswater game on the C1 pitch at North Road.