ESSENDON
There is a version of Friday night that ends at 90 minutes, with Keilor Park through and the Royals wondering how a season that produced sixty-three goals finished without a shot at promotion. History will remember a different story: Andre Russo being mobbed on his own goal line.
The Royals beat Keilor Park 4-2 on penalties at Cross Keys after a 2-2 draw that held through extra time, and they will play Bayside Argonauts at Lakeside Stadium on Saturday 19 September for the third promotion place into VPL Men 1. Bayside beat Box Hill United 3-2 in the other play-off on Saturday.
For thirty-five minutes it looked straightforward. The Royals were the better side from the first whistle and led in the 17th minute when Dean Clarke, back to goal in the area, flicked a look-away back-heel into the path of Marcus Kotronis, who put it away. Keilor Park had barely been in the Royals’ half. Their first proper free kick, just outside the area in the 38th minute, changed the night. Ryouta Yanagisono hit it low and flat through a crowd of bodies, the defence was caught flat-footed and Russo, who had not had a save to make, was beaten. Against the run of play, it sent Keilor into the sheds level.
They came out with the momentum and used it. Four minutes into the second half Sam Litchfield, who scored twice against the Royals here in August, finished a ball into the box and the side that had dominated the first half was chasing the game. Nikola Kostadinoski in the Keilor goal then produced a string of impressive saves, including one Anthony Trajkoski effort that came back off the post, and with the ball camped in the Royals’ attacking third for most of the half, the equaliser would not come. The cards piled up on both sides, Takumi Niwa, Bradley Norton, Jake Armitage and Sam O’Halleron all booked in a twenty-minute stretch, and Mick Ferrante turned to his bench, Sebastian Lo Monaco replacing Vince Lia and Adrian Zahra replacing Phillip Riccobene.
With pressure mounting and hope starting to fade, the breakthrough finally arrived in the 87th minute. Takumi drove down the right, pivoted, and with two defenders closing in, stabbed the ball through the gap for Josh Markovski. Markovski showed superb vision to lay it off for the late-arriving Clarke, and the captain hit it first time into the bottom left corner. It was his ninth of the campaign and the loudest moment of the season at Cross Keys, and it set up thirty minutes of extra time in which the Royals had the chances. Kostadinoski kept saving, O’Halleron put a chance across the face of goal for Keilor that he should have finished, and neither side could find the goal that would have spared everyone the shootout.
When it came down to spot-kicks, the night belonged to Russo. Norton buried the first, before Litchfield stepped up having beaten Russo once already. The Royals keeper got down sharply to his right to stop it. Frank Mulhern sent Kostadinoski the wrong way for 2-0. Former Royals favourite Matteo Ballan, on the pitch for barely a minute, was stopped by Russo’s outstretched left hand, and Clarke drove in the third. O’Halleron scored off the post, and Kostadinoski parried Lo Monaco’s kick to keep Keilor alive. Armitage found the right corner for 3-2, and Adrian Zahra walked up with the chance to book the trip to Lakeside. Zahra kept his cool, side-footing into the bottom right corner to send the home crowd wild.
Keilor Park had already beaten the Royals twice this year, something only the champions Goulburn Valley Suns had also managed, and they were a hair’s breath away from doing it a third time. That is the margin at this end of the season. With the season on the line, the Royals found a way.
Saturday 19 September at Lakeside Stadium is the last step, with one game between this group and VPL1.
Get your tickets here: https://www.intix.com.au/event/2026-senol-npl-vic-mens-grand-final