Bendigo City FC

Bendigo City FC
Full name Bendigo City Football Club
Nickname(s) The Towners, B-Town, City
Founded 2006
Ground Epsom Soccer Complex
Ground Capacity 10,000
Chairman Brock Rogers
Coach Srecko Baresic-Nikic
League NPL2 West

Bendigo City FC is a semi-professional football club based in Bendigo, Australia. It competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 2 competition. Bendigo plays out of the Epsom Huntly Recreation Reserve soccer complex.

History

The Club was established as FC Bendigo in 2014[1] as part of the newly formed National Premier Leagues Victoria (NPL) competition, and then reformed as Bendigo City FC the following year.[2] FC Bendigo's licence was held by Bendigo Amateur Soccer League (BASL) while the new entity is backed by Bendigo Bank and the Bendigo City Council.

On the pitch, Bendigo had a solid first season in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 1. The Club finished 11th in the 14 team competition with 9 wins, 4 draws and 13 losses. Bendigo grabbed a memorable win against the eventually promoted North Geelong Warriors FC on 3 May 2014, when the Towners beat the Lara-based outfit by three goals to two at Elcho Park.

In July 2015, Bendigo City FC's committee resigned after disagreements with parents and members regarding a re-structure of the Club's finances, including the change of technical director Fob Soncin's role from full time to part time.[3] The committee was then reinstated 48 hours later at an Extraordinary General Meeting.[4]

The reformed Bendigo City FC, a more community-focused club than the previous FC Bendigo consortium, based their senior squad on local players rather than bringing in established players from Melbourne. Unfortunately for Bendigo, this resulted in a largely difficult campaign in the 2015 National Premier Leagues Victoria 2 West season, managing only six wins and seven draws from 28 games to finish second bottom of the league.[5]

One round into the 2016 NPL2 season, City head coach Esteban Quintas quit his post to return to his native home of Spain.[6] Bendigo's season slumped, earning just one win in the opening eight rounds and enduring heavy 2–7 and 1–7 defeats to North Geelong Warriors FC and Moreland Zebras FC respectively in Rounds 7 and 8 of the season, the latter their greatest ever defeat in their short life as a club.[7] After another heavy loss, this time a 5–1 drubbing at the hands of Ballarat Red Devils, Bendigo City FC announced that Jose Montana Santamarta had been appointed as the club's new senior head coach, assisted by conditioning coach Alenjandro Montano Garcia. Bendigo City finished the season in bottom place on the NPL2 West table, with 4 wins and 3 draws in 28 games.

Bendigo appointed Srecko Baresic-Nikic as its new head coach for 2017, replacing the outgoing Jose Santamarta.[8] However the appointment didn't last long, with Baresic-Nikic resigning in March after five games, with the side sitting bottom with just single point and one goal scored.[9]

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
Thailand Say Ka Pow
Australia Sam Scoble
Germany Josh Bauer
England John Roberts
Thailand Eh Soo Seven
Switzerland Isaac Commadeur
Ukraine Vladimir Khamees
Nigeria Robert Munday
Australia David Younan
Republic of Ireland Carl O'Keeffe
No. Position Player
Lebanon Wahid Hashimi
Algeria Anmar Yousif
Australia Daniel Purdy
South Sudan Godwill Basha
Australia Lachlan Beever
Australia George Mcheileh
Brazil Vinicius Branco
Greece Dillon Maikousis
Republic of Macedonia Alkin Keles

References

  1. ↑ "FC Bendigo is born". Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  2. ↑ Moran, Shaun. "Bendigo NPL Licence transfer finalised". MFootball. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  3. ↑ Bourke, Adam. "Bendigo City FC committee quits". Bendigo Advertiser. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  4. ↑ Bourke, Adam. "Bendigo City backflip". Bendigo Advertiser. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  5. ↑ http://www.foxsportspulse.com/comp_info.cgi?a=LADDER&compID=337121&c=1-10178-0-0-0
  6. ↑ "Bendigo City FC coach quits after one game". Bendigo Advertiser. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  7. ↑ "Zebras’ masterclass sinks Bendigo City". Bendigo Advertiser. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  8. ↑ "Bendigo appoint experienced Baresic-Nikic". The Corner Flag. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
  9. ↑ "Baresic-Nikic departure another turbulent chapter in Bendigo City history". The Corner Flag. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
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