AS RYAN McGuffie’s penalty hit the back of the net to give St Albans hope of an almighty FFA Cup upset against Perth Glory, a crowd of about 3000 people rose to their feet at Knights Stadium.

Among them was Football Federation Victoria chief executive Peter Gome, who couldn’t help but be excited by what he was witnessing.

In front of a healthy Tuesday night crowd, a Victorian National Premier League 1 club had just scored against one of Australia’s historical powerhouses.

It was a moment that created delirium among the St Albans’ supporters and encapsulated the potential of soccer to capture the imagination of sporting fans across the country.

That feeling is something Gome hopes to tap into as FFV looks to build on the first year of the National Premier League.

Gome returned to FFV in late August, replacing Mitchell Murphy as chief executive.

But the top job is not a position he is unfamiliar with having served as interim chief executive between November 2012 and June 2013.

“If you’d said to me 12 months ago when I was here that on a Tuesday night 3000 people would be at a game watching a local community club play an A-League club ... I would have said, ‘No way’,” Gome said.

“And yet 12 months later here we are with something which has captured the imagination of anyone who follows football.”

The national cup competition has generated near unprecedented media interest in community soccer, with 12 print journalists and 10 photographers covering the St Albans-Perth fixture.

“That’s what you’d expect for a typical A-League or AFL game,” Gome said.

The FFA Cup put smaller clubs such as South Springvale toward the front page of metropolitan newspapers, with the State League 1 South-East club’s fairytale run endearing even the sport’s most ardent critics.

While South Melbourne and Avondale Heights continue to enjoy the spoils of their NPL success, the competition had to overcome a rocky start.

There were doubts over whether the NPLV would take place in 2014 before FFV and a consortium of clubs came to an agreement about its structure after months of court proceedings. When asked whether the initial unrest had lingered over the first year of the NPL, Gome said: “I’m unaware of the stigma, because I wasn’t here then. All I’ll say is that I’ve been in contact with a number of NPL clubs including South Melbourne and I’m welcome there.”

Gome confirmed Murray United and Eastern Jets, who were awarded NPL ­licences before the start of the 2014 campaign, were on track to join the competition next year.

He said he was not disappointed by the performances of existing regional clubs Ballarat Red Devils and Goulburn Valley Suns, who were both relegated from the NPL’s top tier.

Their demotion will leave North Geelong Warriors as the only NPL team based outside metropolitan Melbourne next year.

Ballarat, Goulburn Valley, FC Bendigo and Murray United will all compete in NPL1 in 2015.

“No one wants to see a club get relegated but someone has to be,” Gome said.

“I’m unaware of Ballarat, (but) I know Goulburn Valley Suns started very, very late in the competition.

“This is a level playing field ... you’ve got to realise this is the first year of a competition.

“Things will sort themselves out, clubs will come up, clubs will come down.”

Gome said one of his top priorities was the rapid growth of female soccer.

While there had been speculation a Women’s NPL would be introduced in Victoria next year, it will now start in 2016.

“One of our six pillars is women and girls in the sport,” Gome said.

“It’s growing dramatically, it’s fabulous.“

Gome said he was confident the requirement for NPL clubs to field junior teams from under-12 to under-20 level would benefit the sport’s future, but acknowledged some had struggled to find enough players in 2014.

But with participation numbers across the country building and the Asian Cup on the horizon next year, Gome said soccer was only going to keep growing.

With the right investment in facilities and clubs, he said spectator numbers at blockbuster games had the potential to skyrocket.

“Can I see 30,000 people (at Knights Stadium) in 10 years? Yep,” he said. “On a Tuesday night, easily.”

While he’s happy to acknowledge the sport has faced its challenges in the past two years, Gome is more than optimistic about what soccer’s future holds in Victoria.

“I’ve come back because I can see the opportunity in football,” he said.