Hume City progress in Dockerty Cup with thrilling win over Oakleigh

Hume City FC has produced one of the biggest wins of its 2025 season after taking out a 3-2 victory over Oakleigh Cannons in the Dockerty Cup on Tuesday night.

Having twice come from behind during the encounter at NASIOL Stadium, goals to Lloyd Isgrove and Joshua Okane kept Hume City on level terms with the away side, before Godfrey Debele capped off a remarkable comeback with a late strike to break a four-game losing streak against Oakleigh and help us progress through to the final stage of the competition.

In what was a freezing night in Melbourne’s north, the game got off to a fairly subdued start as an Isgrove shot from outside the box proved the only real chance for either side within the first 10 minutes.

Hume City were the more dominant of the two sides and controlled the game during the next phase, with its most threatening attack coming from a Birkan Kirdar free kick that saw the ball ricocheting around the feet of a number of players before Oakleigh eventually cleared the ball.

Unfortunately, Hume City’s hard work was undone when the visitors who broke the deadlock just minutes later — a superb run from Joe Guest seeing the Oakleigh talisman work his way behind the defence to slot past Damien Camilleri across the face of goal.

The goal, which was against the run of play, gave Oakleigh a newfound confidence as they began to take control of the game, only for Isgrove to get the much-needed equaliser on the half-hour mark.

A searching long ball from Harry Ascroft from deep in defence found Michael Domfeh in the Oakleigh half, with the midfielder flicking on his header forward into the path of Isgrove. The Englishman still had a lot of work to do once in possession as he outmuscled his defender inside the box, eventually chipping the ball over goalkeeper, Nick Feely.

Hume City would only be on equal terms with Oakleigh for a mere matter of minutes, as Guest again put the away side ahead in similar fashion to his first — a shot across the face of goal, beating Camilleri.

While Camilleri could have done better on the second goal, the debutant kept us in the game just three minutes later thanks to a brilliant save where he denied Matt Dench from point-blank range.

Hume City then had the chance to equalise going into half time as captain Josh Bingham got on the end of a Debele cutback with a powerful strike, but his effort was well covered by Feely.

Following the half-time break, both teams came out searching for their next goal and had a number of chances, however, it was substitute Okane who would be the one to find the back of the net and put Hume City back on level terms thanks to an incredible half-volley strike.

Following a set-piece, Oakleigh failed to clear the ball properly, as Feely’s punch only only got the ball as far as the edge of the 16-yard box, where a waiting Okane chested the ball around an Oakleigh player and scored on the half-volley.

With just over 20 minutes to go, the game took a new turn as both teams had big chances to find the winner — Mark Ochieng, Isgrove, Mehmet Uysal and Debele all coming close to giving Hume the win, while Oakleigh’s best chance saw a shot sail inches wide of the post.

In the end though, it was a stunning solo effort from Debele on the 83rd minute that would ultimately prove the deciding factor — the number nine dancing his way through a handful of Oakleigh players before poking the ball past Feely at the goalkeeper’s right post.

Hume City managed to hold out for the remaining minutes, as they claimed a memorable 3-2 victory over Oakleigh and moved to Round 7 of the Dockerty Cup.

Hume City’s attention now turns to a must-win fixture against Dandenong Thunder at George Andrews Reserve on Saturday 24 May at 7pm AEST.