ACE have already won two titles this season – but they want more.
The Seniors and Reserves have this weekend off, after Saturday’s exertions, before the countdown begins to the Premier League finals.
Both sides face Toowong – again. The Seniors at Wolter Park on September 7. The Reserves at Toowong on September 8. Kick-off times to be confirmed.
Senior coach Steve Glockner said: “With a bit of luck we will make it into the final and it would be great to get a double. At the moment our squad is looking fit and healthy for this final challenge.”
ACE are Premiers, the Reserves are runners-up and ACE has the Brisbane Club Championship after what Steve described as a “rollercoaster ride of emotions” at Wolter Park on Saturday.
“There has been so much hard work all year from the players, so much expectation on them to win, but Toowong are a difficult side and I never expected it to be easy,” he said.
“We had the weight of the club championship on us but, as we have all year, we found a way to get the right result.
“At 2-0 down we knew we could come back. We did it from 3-0 down at Toowong earlier in the season. Scoring early in the second half was crucial.
“The players knew finding an equaliser would win us the club championship and I’m so happy for Andy Ford who created it and Matt Sanchez for scoring it.
“It was fitting for Matt to score after the great season he has had.”
That point secured a second successive ACE Premiership, an achievement Steve said was “10 times harder than in 2018.”
“We had to rebuild the team again, starting with five players,” he said. “In the end there were five teams battling it out this year, rather than two.
“We’d lost two games by Round Six and it was looking like Grange, Bayside or Toowong would run away with it, but then we started our 16-game unbeaten run.
“There were so many difficult games, tough 1-0 wins, playing with 10 men for 85 minutes and we still won, five away games in a row, 90-plus minute equalisers … the team never knew when it was beaten.”
