A year on, it’s a similar scenario against a Western Australian NPL side and it will be their first competitive match in the 2016-17 campaign facing Floreat Athena away.

Coach John Van’t Schip reflected on the escape they had in the FFA Cup Round of 32 last year and believed the Floreat Athena game was a opportunity to wake the players up.

“We know these games can be difficult if you don’t approach it in the right way, it’s a cup game and they give everything they have,” Van’t Schip said.

“We have to be focused on our own game and our game plan, that’s’ why it’s good to have these games because it brings more pressure for the boys and that’s what you need when the A-League starts. 

“We’re more than pleased for this competition and we want to get further, a must win.”

The Dutchman confirmed new signing Neil Kilkenny will not play after picking up a minor foot injury. He also ruled out Corey Gameiro, who has nearly fully recovered from an ACL injury picked up last season.

City have so far played two pre-season matches away to local NPL sides, the initial encounter saw them down Port Melbourne 5-0 away and subsequently a 4-0 win over Melbourne Knights.

Van’t Schip has brought in a total of five major names including Kilkenny (Preston North End), Fernando Brandan (Atletico Temperley), Luke Brattan (Manchester City loan), Bruce Kamau (Adelaide United) and Manny Muscat (Wellington Phoenix).

Albeit the A-League season is still over two months away, the City boss said the new players in his squad had him “excited” and wanted to improve on the disappointment of narrowly missing out on both the Premiership and Championship last season.

“What I’ve seen over the past few weeks makes me excited and hopefully we can have an even better year again and make the finals and win the final,” he said.

“The squad’s very positive, good energy and working hard. It’s getting other players in and getting used to each other.

“We’ve had a lot of new boys come in and from the start they’ve been really good, so hopefully after this game we’ll work towards the second part of pre-season. 

“Getting those new boys in is important, integrating the new way of playing.

“Compared to last year I’m happy with a clean bill of health, we were struggling up until December when we were getting players back in from longer injuries. 

“Now we’re actually very pleased about how the players are. We didn’t have any big injuries coming in, so that was a big advantage.”