OUR HISTORY
The foundation and reformation
1927-2000
Although Pascoe Vale FC as we know it today was formed in 1966, the first known Pascoe Vale Soccer Club was formed by British migrants in 1927 who played in the Victorian Metropolitan Leagues and competed in the historic Dockerty Cup.
The club was reformed in 1966 by Aromanian immigrants from the village Nižepole in Bitola, Macedonia, who nicknamed the club ‘Pascoe Vale Pelister’ after the mountain from where they came. The first president of the newly-reformed Pelister was the late Michael Puljevic, who entered the club into the now defunct District Leagues in the late 60’s, where the team finished second in the West Division in 1968, and third in the Central Division in 1969.
When the Premier Division of the District Leagues was formed, Pascoe Vale was a member club. Many of Pascoe Vale’s players of that era went on to play at bigger clubs; Nick Boskov went to Preston Makedonia, then to Yugal in Sydney and from there switched to Canberra, while John Tilovski spent two years at Footscray J.U.S.T. along with Mirko Dzanovski. One of the club greats of this era, goalkeeper Ilo Duklevski, played overseas for Macedonian club FK Pelister and would also later move to Preston Makedonia.
In the early 70’s, Pascoe Vale’s president was George Dzanovski, a man who carried the club through some trying times. In 1976, Frank Patti was appointed as the first ever paid coach at the club. Chris Dzanovski followed as president, and was also one of the club’s greatest ever players, along with Steve Dzanovski who was also at his peak. Steve played with Pascoe Vale from 1966 until his retirement in 1981. The club would also form it’s first junior team in 1979, the spark that would eventually form into the full-fledged academy of today.
In 1982, club legend Jim Tona took over as president as Pascoe Vale began to surge through the leagues, earning three consecutive promotions and winning the 1984 Provisional League Division 2 Championship, the first league title in the club’s history. Pascoe Vale enjoyed moderate success during the 80’s and 90’s, being promoted to the State Leagues for the first time in 1987, and winning the 1992 State League Division 4 Championship with the likes of club legends Pepi Colakovski and Nick Katsis, who are still heavily involved at the club to this day. In that same year, Pascoe Vale also made one of the deepest Dockerty Cup runs in the club’s history at the time, taking on eventual grand-finalists South Melbourne in the Quarter-Final, who would go on to win the NSL Premiership that year.
Turn of the century
2001-2013
After 9 years in State League Division 3, the club went on a recruiting drive in 2001 and picked up Daniel Tribuzio as well as ex-NSL players George Petrov, Michael Burlak, David Colosimo and Rob Petrovski, succeeding in promotion to State League Division 2, the third tier in Victoria at the time.
Pascoe Vale went from strength to strength from this point on by recruiting Vitale Ferrante and former Victorian Premier League players such as Rocky Di Vitto, David Turkovic, Robert Spence, Steven Tribuzio and Adam Inglese to name a few. Under the guidance of Gianfranco Impellizzeri, Pascoe Vale narrowly missed promotion in the 2003 & 2004 promotion play offs in front of big crowds, both ending in penalties against Langwarrin and Kingston City respectively. 2004 also saw the team make it all the way to the Quarter Finals of the Dockerty Cup (then known as the Crazy Johns Cup) once again, before falling to St Albans Saints at Bob Jane Stadium.
In the following years, the club’s junior program grew exponentially, setting the foundations for the next generation of Pascoe Vale players. A major achievement was the creation of the inaugural Junior Girls team, a new frontier for the club at this time.
Division 2 posed a problem for the club and after continuous disappointments in bottled promotions, the club hired former A-League assistant coach Luciano Trani as head coach in 2008. Pascoe Vale won the 2008 State League Division 2 Championship on the penultimate day of the season, with a winning goal from Daniel Genovesi on the final day of his football career.
The recruitment of Luciano Trani is believed to have permanently changed the culture of the club, which has seen the professionalism of clubmen and players rival that of the biggest clubs in the state. Special mention must be made for a particular signing in 2009, a young Adrian Talarico, who to this day holds the record of most senior matches played for the club.
The club consolidated our position in Division 1 with high calibre coaches such as ex-South Melbourne legend, David Clarkson, and George Karkaletsis. In 2011, Vitale Ferrante took over as coach and commenced building a legendary side with the recruitment of eventual club captain Joseph Youssef, Luca & Marco Santilli and former West Ham, Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix player, Michael Ferrante.
The following year would be the most successful in the history of the club, which saw Pascoe Vale win the 2012 State League Division 1 Championship by five points over Port Melbourne, promoting the team to the highest tier in Victorian football for the first time in club history and marking the next step as Pascoe Vale evolved from a small family club, to now competing with some of the biggest teams Australia had to offer. Pascoe Vale would once again make it to the Quarter Finals of that year’s installment of the Dockerty Cup (then known as the State Knockout Cup), holding on through extra-time only to then lose in penalties against Sunshine George Cross.
After building upon the squad in the Victorian Premier League in 2013 with new additions Davey Van’t Schip and Tomi Milardovic, Pascoe Vale would now enter the new NPL era.
The NPL era
2014-2024
The top tier of football in Victoria was reformed in 2014 to the National Premier Leagues Victoria, where Pascoe Vale finished 11th in the 14 team inaugural season.
Despite being tipped by some as relegation candidates at the start of the year, Pascoe Vale finished in 6th place in 2015, qualifying for the finals series. Pascoe Vale came up against Heidelberg United in the elimination final and progressed on penalties. Facing South Melbourne at Lakeside Stadium, Pascoe Vale conceded two late goals in extra time to go down 3–2. This semi-final finish was the furthest Pascoe Vale had ever reached in a top flight season. The 2015 season also marked the first season Pascoe Vale played out of new home ground CB Smith Reserve, a recently built $6.3m facility.
Prior to the 2016 season, Pascoe Vale Soccer Club announced they would adopt a new name and logo, proceeding onward as the Pascoe Vale Football Club. Their new logo was inspired by the shepherding origins of the clubs founders. Pascoe Vale finished the 2016 season in 7th place, with Van’t Schip scoring 9 goals and taking out the club’s Golden Boot award.
In 2017, Pascoe Vale formed its inaugural Senior Women’s team, and the club’s female participation more than doubled in 2017 to five female teams in total. The Senior Men finished the season in 7th place, just outside the finals series. Davey Van’t Schip scored 17 goals to take out the club’s Golden Boot award yet again and was only second in the league to Heidelberg’s Kenny Athiu, who scored 21 times. Tomi Milardovic retired at the end of the season, after five seasons at the club.
In 2018, Pascoe Vale finished the season in 4th place, qualifying for the finals series but losing 2–1 to Oakleigh Cannons in the elimination final. Van’t Schip was the top scorer for the third season running, this time with 15 goals, the fourth highest tally in the league.
From January 2019, Pascoe Vale player Hakeem al-Araibi, a political dissident from Bahrain, was being held in Thailand pending deportation to Bahrain. This attracted much media attention and a campaign for his quick and safe return was spearheaded by the club, with support from Craig Foster. He was released in February of the same year after the government of Bahrain withdrew their extradition request, and arrived at Melbourne Airport on 12 February to much publicity.
In June 2019, long-serving head coach Vitale Ferrante resigned after eight years in charge. His brother Michael Ferrante, along with Luca Santili and Davey Van’t Schip also departed the club, while David Chick was named as the new head coach. In August 2019, Pascoe Vale were relegated from NPL Victoria, finishing in last place.
Looking to bounce straight back to the top tier, the club recruited strongly for 2020 but were hampered by the pre-emptive cancellation of the season due to COVID. The following year would see the team sitting clear second after 14 games played, but were again struck by a cancelled season due to the pandemic. Before the season was cancelled, the team would make yet another run in the Dockerty Cup, losing to eventual Cup winners Avondale in the fourth Cup Quarter Final in club history.
Pascoe Vale would just miss out on promotion in the 2022 NPL2 season under the care of Alex Cobo, in one of the first NPL2 seasons at that point to not feature promotion play-offs. In the disappointing 2023 season, a change in coach led to Ante Moric taking the reins for the latter half of the season, but still finishing at the bottom of the table.
Nevertheless, 2023 was still a positive year for the club, as the Senior Women won their first ever league title after finishing first in State League 3 North.
Dandenong Thunder’s renowned 2012 treble-winning captain Shane Rexhepi was appointed as head coach of the Senior Men in 2024, with strong results on the pitch and strong recruitment hampered by a string of injuries. At the end of the 2024 season, captain and club legend Adrian Talarico announced that he would be hanging up the boots after his 15 year stint with the club.
Pascoe Vale entered 2025 with the re-signing of Rexhepi, alongside the completion of a multi million dollar redevelopment of the club’s true home ground, Hosken Reserve. After a challenging start to the season, Shane parted ways with the club after Round 11, leading to the appointment of Steve Pavlidis to take the reins halfway through the season. After a promising string of victories in the latter half of the season, the team found themselves falling over at the final hurdle, losing crucial final matches and ending up at the bottom of the table. This would see PVFC’s Senior Men compete in the fourth tier of Victorian football in 2026, for the first time in 25 years.
The club now looks to reset and rebuild ahead of the 2026 season, which will also coincide with the 60th anniversary since it’s founding.
