East slumped to a 1-nil defeat to Oxley Vale Attunga in Saturday’s semi-final, but the top two finish means they will get a second crack at a spot in the final four.

Coach Mark Gwynne was disappointed with the result, but said the match “could have gone either way”.

“We didn’t play as well as we did when we beat them in Armidale a few weeks ago,” he said.

East missed a golden chance at an early lead when Lewis Russoniello had a penalty saved.

“We missed that penalty inside the first 10 minutes and that sparked them [OVA] up a bit,” Gwynne said.

“Lewis hit it to the left of the keeper and he stuck a foot out and saved it.

“Lewis is normally 10 out of 10, he never misses.

“But that’s football.”

OVA broke through first with a goal after 25 minutes.

“It was a very lucky goal,” Gwynne said.

“It hit the cross bar and then came down and hit our keeper on the back of the hand and went in.”

The score would stay that way until the final whistle sounded handing OVA a spot in the preliminary finals and leaving East to host Gunnedah FC in a sudden death play-off in Saturday.

“Gunnedah will be tough,” Gwynne said.

“They are a big, physical side.

“From what I heard they dominated Norths and just pushed them off the ball.”

If previous form is anything to go on East would appear to be sure-things against Gunnedah at Doody Park this weekend.

The last time the two sides met, East thrashed the southern conference side 11-1, although Gwynne has issued a word of caution to his side about taking Gunnedah 

lightly.

“I’m not really looking at last time at all,” he said.

“They come up here with 16 players for two grades.

“They will be much tougher this time and I think very hard to beat.”

Gwynne said consistency is the key for his side moving forward.

“We played very well in patches against OVA, it’s a matter of doing that for 90 minutes,” he said.

“I know we can beat any side if we play well, we just have to be more consistent.”