Schoolboy Marshall to mark Fornaroli and Cahill

Jake Marshall - a fresh-faced, 18-year-old schoolboy with Year 12 exams to worry about - will have the responsibility of stopping Bruno Fornaroli and potentially Australia superstar Tim Cahill in his upcoming FFA Cup match.

Jake Marshall

Jake Marshall of the Brisbane Strikers. Source: Facebook

As Marshall’s coach at Queensland National Premier League club Brisbane Strikers Kevin Aherne-Evans perfectly put it: “That’s the beauty of the cup.”

Marshall, whom Aherne-Evans said had a big future and would probably be moving on from the Strikers to youth team football in the A-League when this season’s NPL commitments are over, will start in central defence against Melbourne City at Brisbane’s Perry Park on Wednesday night.

The round of 16 cup match was already going to be an attractive spectacle, but it has taken on much added meaning with the news Cahill is expected to make his City debut off the bench in the match.
So the young Marshall can expect to have to do his bit to stop last season’s leading A-League goal-scorer, Fornaroli and later Australia's all-time leading scorer in Cahill.

Marshall will obviously have support from the rest of the Strikers defence and his teammates down the field, who will be trying to restrict the quality of the service to the front men, but it is going to be fascinating to see how the young fellow in particular handles the job.

The astute Aherne-Evans, who is highly respected as a young coach, is convinced Marshall is up to it.

“Jake will be starting.” Aherne-Evans told The World Game.

“He has played almost every game for us this season.

“The only time he wasn’t in the team was when he had to fulfil his other commitments, being in a private school.
“Jake has already had offers to play youth league football at a couple of A-League clubs, so we anticipate he’ll move on at the end of the year.

“We’ve already produced a couple of youth team players at other clubs and on top of us having a good cup run and winning the premiership up here, people are looking at our players.

“Jake Marshall will be another one and there will some more on his heels who will be creating interest.

“Jake is doing Year 12 exams at the moment and it’s one of those rare things where he’s got the opportunity to go up against one of his idols, a great player who has done so much and is twice as old as him, and that’s the beauty of the FFA Cup. “


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3 min read
Published 23 August 2016 8:09am
Updated 23 August 2016 3:43pm
By Greg Prichard


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