Words: Matt Dorman

SWQ Thunder skipper Keagan Sheridan is determined to prove a point to the Toowoomba football community in Wednesday night’s Westfield FFA Cup qualifier against West Wanderers.

Thunder claimed their first competitive win as a club in the competition’s preliminary rounds last year and are motivated to further cement their reputation as the region’s premier outfit.

An already spicy local derby takes on extra meaning with Wanderers’ squad featuring former Thunder players Ashley Freier and Nick Weber.

“There’s a lot of people in Toowoomba that do write us off a fair bit,” Sheridan said.

“We’re trying to push to prove those people wrong and prove that we are good enough to play in the NPL.”

Sheridan returned to his hometown team this year after breaking into the PlayStation 4 NPL Queensland system with Western Pride, which meant three lengthy trips to Ipswich each week.

While he admits leading Thunder this season has been tough, the defender believes the Westfield FFA Cup is an ideal platform for Chris Wilkes’ young side to make a statement.

“We want to win this game pretty bad just to prove we are the best team in Toowoomba and from there (further progress) will be a bonus,” he said.

“It will be interesting to see how far we go this year.

“To have a team from Toowoomba reach the national level would be good for the region.”

Thunder carry some confidence into the clash despite Sunday’s late 2-1 loss away to Sunshine Coast, which was arguably their best performance of the season since keeping Brisbane Roar Youth to a 1-1 draw in the second round.

Sheridan explained the team’s mood was conflicted given they came close to upsetting a top-four team.

“It was mixed emotions really,” the 20-year-old said.

“We didn’t concede six or seven goals like we did a couple of weeks ago. We were happy but disappointed at the same time because we had chances to win the game.

“But we’re a young squad so we’re still learning.”

Despite that defeat, the Thunder captain remains confident of competing on both fronts beginning with tomorrow night’s knockout encounter.

“We spoke before the game on Sunday saying we wanted to build some momentum,” Sheridan said.

“We’ve got a tough week ahead with the game on Wednesday night and Brisbane Strikers on Saturday night. We’re definitely confident we can get a win but it’s a cup match so anything can happen really.

“We’ve got to be smart in the way we play.”

Westfield FFA Cup South West Queensland Zone Qualifying Round 5

West Wanderers v SWQ Thunder
West Wanderers Field 1
Wednesday, May 13
Kick-off – 7:00PM