"SEEING the smiles on everybody's faces brought tears to my eyes."
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Those are the words of Forest Rangers coach Sam Muscat, after he resurrected his club from the bottom of the ladder to win the Ballarat District Soccer Association grand final on Saturday night.
The Rangers could not have won the season decider at Morshead Park in any more dramatic fashion.
Extra time, a penalty shootout, a power outage - the grand final against Sebastopol Vikings had it all.
In the end, however, it was the Rangers that triumphed in the penalty shootout, winning their first cup since 1994.
“It was like a fairytale in the end, people couldn’t believe what had happened,” Muscat said.
In reality, anybody with a degree of knowledge of the open men’s league would almost have laughed if it was suggested Rangers would win the grand final in 2015.
They had lost their first four matches of the season and even qualifying for finals seemed an impossible task.
However, in stepped Muscat as the new coach.
“It was just about putting belief in the minds of the players,” Muscat said.
“There were people that looked at me funny when I said we could win the competition, but I honestly believed we could.”
Steadily, Muscat saw his side improve, scraping into fourth position by winning the last match of the season.
They beat Warrnambool (third) and Ballarat (champions) en route to the grand final, taking an eight-match winning streak into the biggest game of the year. In that stretch they scored 28 goals and conceded just two.
The grand final itself proved to be the toughest hurdle of all.
The Rangers looked set to go down until Daniel Cook equalised the scores at 1-1 with just a few minutes left in regular time.
Muscat then put his team in front with a penalty in extra time, but Sebastopol replied and scores were locked at 2-2 at the end of 120 minutes.
The drama was far from over, however. Just when the shootout was about to begin, the lights on the Morshead Park main pitch went out.
The result: a half hour wait, before the shootout was moved to the synthetic pitch.
“I was cramping up, a lot of the boys couldn’t even take their kicks because that break killed us,” Muscat said.
However, they showed no signs of it. While the Vikings missed their first two penalties, Rangers made four-in-a-row, with Muscat delivering the sealer.
“It was just incredible, to come from where we were at the start of the season to winning was amazing,” Muscat said.
“There was so much hard work put in but it was worth it.”
Muscat said he would most likely look to hand over the coaching reins next year, instead focusing on steering the junior age groups at the club, in which his two sons play.
Cook was awarded the best on ground medallion, but perhaps the most remarkable effort goes to Michael Lockyer.
Lockyer, one of Forest’s key strikers, had earlier in the day won the best on ground in the Mininera District Football League’s grand final for Lismore Derrinallum, making it two premierships in a day. However, his impact was limited to less than a half as he was overcome by exhaustion.