But when Brett Ervine injured his back warming up for first grade, he received a tap on the shoulder from United coach Chris Walsh.

He wanted him in his side.

Cross repaid the coaches faith, scoring the second of United’s six goals in their 6-2 hammering of Port FC.

“He chipped the keeper and found the gap of what was probably six to eight inches between the top of his fingers and the bottom of the crossbar,” Walsh said.

United went to the break holding a 2-0 lead after Matt Broderick opened the scoring and when Andy Collins made it 3-0 just after the resumption of play, another embarrassing loss loomed large for FC.

Walsh gave credit to FC for making it a contest when all hope appeared lost at 3-0.

“To their credit they picked up two goals when we had a little bit of a flat patch,” he said.

FC pushed forward and closed to 3-2 with about 25 minutes remaining and an unlikely victory appeared to be a possibility.

Enter super-sub Jarrod Kohler.

Kohler scored a hat-trick off the bench in a performance that delighted Walsh.

“That was what we wanted him to do; he provided us with some impact and scored his hat-trick inside 30 minutes,” the coach said.

Walsh was quietly confident that with his full-strength first grade squad at his disposal the Green Bloods could make some sides nervous in the finals.

“I strongly believe we’re up there with the best teams in the competition when we put it all together,” he said.

“We’re one of those teams that feeds of success and we play to be there in the finals.

“It makes a big difference when you have most of your players available; in the last month or so we’ve had on average 10 players out.

“It’s the first time in a month where we’ve been at full-strength.”

The United coach conceded winger Brendan Prince, who is currently holidaying in America, would have to fight for his spot when he returns next month.

“It’s good to know we’ve got him, but he might not get back into the team,” he said.

Port FC captain Scott Spokes was left to rue another performance where they leaked too many goals.

“We’re conceding way too many and you can’t put it down to any one reason,” he said.

“Our marking’s a bit loose, we’re not tracking our players and ball watching.”

Spokes knows they now face an uphill task to make the finals, but said they fought back well and Aaron Grose was their best. He scored both of their goals.

“We fought back well, but our intensity wasn’t there.”

Earlier in the day, United defeated FC 5-0 in reserve grade.