Bentleigh went down 2-0 to Melbourne Victory in the FFA Cup quarter-final at home in their 41st game of the year.

The match remained scoreless at half-time before Victory opened the scoring after the hour mark.

The FFA Cup has seen a number of A-League teams knocked out by NPL opposition in recent times and Holmes believed the local game wasn’t far off.

“I think with the quality of players, I don’t think we’re very far off at all, you’ve seen out there tonight, the difference is that extra yard of sharpness which comes with being a full-time professional,” Holmes said.

“There’s so many players in our team and in our league who if they were put in that environment, they’d be able to perform at the same standard of what some of these players are.

“In terms of the quality, it’s not far off, but it’s about getting the infrastructure right and doing it in a proper manner, so I think in terms of how things move forward.

“I think Australia is a bit behind in that, there’s some quality in the state league teams and it’s about giving those guys a go if they can prove themselves.”

At times tempers were frayed with opponents exchanging pleasantries in the first half.

Holmes said he expected the hostility from the experienced and fit A-League outfit.

“We’re scared of no-one, especially the team comes through our gates and onto our home field, we’re not going to take a backwards step if someone tries to get in our face to intimidate us or to think they’re better than us,” he said.

“I think we tried to get on the front foot and really take it to them and you’re always going to get those niggles and it’s a credit to the boys they stood up to those challenges and let Melbourne Victory know they were here for a game and it wasn’t going to be a training run for them.”

Playing against A-League opposition would have been big enough, let alone his wife giving birth to their first baby daughter on game day at 2.45pm.

Holmes said he took a light-hearted view on the footballing side of things.

“With all the games we had over the last few weeks, I kept saying to my wife ‘I could end up in Western Australia’ and I always joked saying ‘soccer takes priority’,” he said.

 “My wife was going through it a long time during the day, but as soon as the baby came out my focus would straight away switch to the game and I was even joking to her that she had till 5pm and it’s not out by then I’m in the car out of here.

“At the end of the day I think it worked out all right and it’ll be good to go back to the hospital now to spend some time with her and my daughter.”