St Albans Saints

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St Albans Saints

Full name

St Albans Saints
Soccer Club

Nickname(s)

Dinamo

Founded

1954 as St Albans, '75 as Dinamo

Ground

Churchill Reserve
(Capacity 3,500)

Chairman

Ante Sesto

Manager

Vacant

League

Victorian State League Division 1

VSLD1 2006

6th





Home colours





Away colours

St Albans Saints Soccer Club is an Australian football (soccer) club from St Albans, Australia (a suburb of Melbourne) established by Croatian immigrants to the area. The club is a regular participant in the Australian-Croatian Soccer Tournament. The club is well known for having produced many great players over the years, including many that have gone on to play for its sister club the Melbourne Knights. The club currently competes in the Victorian State League Division 1.

1 History
2 Supporters
3 Honours
4 Individual Honours
5 Notable Former Players
6 Current Squad
7 Links
8 External links

[edit] History

The club was formed by Croatian migrants as Dinamo in 1975. In 1982 the club took over the German backed St Albans Soccer Club which was near bankruptcy. The club became St Albans Dinamo and took residence at Churchill Reserve in St Albans. The club still remains there till this day. The club would go onto build a social club there which holds 400 patrons. It has become an important meeting place for the local Croatian community.

St Albans Saints side from 1977.

St Albans Dinamo won its first title in 1983, winning the Victorian State League Division 2 with Melbourne Knights legends Billy Vojtek (former Socceroo) and Branko Culina leading the way. Billy Vojtek was the leagues top goal scorer with 16 goals. The following year the club joined the Victorian Premier League, skipping Division 1, after several VPL clubs joined the expanded National Soccer League. The club had a poor first year in 1984, finishing 12th and narrowly surviving relegation. By the late 1980s the club had become one of the leading sides in the competition. From 1986 to 1989 the club finished in the top 5 each season. 1988 was the season the club came closest to winning the championship, they finished 4th only 3 points behind first place. In this time the club produced many great players like Ivan Duzel, Ivan Kelic, Velimir Kupersak and Oliver Pondeljak, all of whom went onto great success in the National Soccer League.

Over the next decade the club would struggle, with fluctuating results. The only joy came in 1993 with the club finishing 5th and making the finals. But the club was eliminated at the first phase, losing to Sunshine George Cross. But this period was marked by more young talent being produced by the club, in particular Ante Kovacevic and Tom Pondeljak. Both players went to win the National Soccer League championship with the Melbourne Knights.

In 1998 the club had its most successful season. The club finished first, winning the Minor Premiership. Striker Harry Karl had a great season scoring 23 goals, to finish 2nd on the goal scoring chart. The club made the Grand Final against the Bulleen Inter Kings. In a thrilling match Bulleen were up 2-0 by the 54th minute. But 10 minutes later St Albans had leveled in a remarkable comeback. The joy was short lived, with seven minutes remaining Bulleen scored what would be the winning goal.

After this stand out season the club would go back to struggling, being a mid table side. In 2005 the club was relegated from the Victorian Premier League after having played 23 seasons in the state's top league. Needing only a draw to survive the drop, the club was relegated in the final round after losing to Heidelberg.

[edit] Supporters

St Albans has a large and loyal group of supporters, they are the best supported club in the Victorian State League Division 1. The clubs supporters are primarily from the local Croatian community in St Albans, as well as from surrounding suburbs of Sunshine, Keilor, Taylors Lakes, Delahey, Hillside and Sydenham.