Hello Taranaki Football,

We start with the sad news that I had to cancel the Junior Tournament on Saturday morning. Before I get into the details I want to thank Peringa United for their tremendous support and huge volunteer effort that they put in each time. They had guys out in the weather both Friday afternoon setting up and Saturday morning packing up, without this kind of amazing work things like Junior Tournament can’t go ahead. I also thank the club/school leaders who put the extra time in to sort out their teams to enter the tournament. Now to the weather it was pretty bad in the lead up and more was predicted later in the morning but the main issue was Peringa Park had a massive wind coming straight off the coast which was freezing. I made the call at 7am and returned to Peringa Park at 9am to find a massive hail storm had just hit the ground but the main thing was the strong freezing wind which was still present. With the little ones having so much down time in between each of their matches I certainly made the right call as they would of froze. I left youth grade going as players are much older, were just playing their one match so not standing around and the bad weather came in patches usually passing quickly.

Now onto the senior cups where the Duff Rosebowl was in full swing Saturday afternoon. 2018 Champions Smith and Sons Eltham Prems started their defence of the title with a comfortable 6-0 win over Mark Frost Electrical Hawera Champs where Luke Snellgrove bagged a Hat-Trick. The big match was Flooring Design Moturoa Prems vs JLE NP Rangers Prems which didn’t let the spectators down as it went to extra time. Moturoa were down 2-0 at half time but managed to claw their way back into the match multiple times to tie things up at 3-3 in the 86 minute to force the extra time. Rangers managed to shake of that disappointment to retake the lead in the 105th minute and hang on for the win. Two matches were played at Peringa Park where play had to be stopped as players ran for shelter as a huge hail storm bucketed down on them. When play resumed it saw both Peringa sides winning and advancing to the next round. Peringa United Prems defeated Rough Habits Hawera Prems 5-1 and Bounceback Physio Peringa Champs beat Wonder Minerals Kaponga 7-2 with David Goodall netting a five goal Glut. The final game saw a great win by Milwards Roofing FC Western Champs over Kitchen Draw Inglewood Prems 2-1 with Simon Perks getting the winner which he described as the most important goal of the season.

Nimmos Cup also had five matches played and the pick of the matches had to be the penalty shootout between McDonalds Stratford Div1 with Taranaki Tyre Torque Woodleigh Div2. Woodleigh had the 2-1 lead going into the dying minutes of the match before Stratford got a last minute penalty to send the match into extra time. With no more scoring in extra time the match had to be decided by spot kicks where Stratford held their nerve to win 4-3. Also at Swansea Park Hutchins Dick Peringa Pirates Div1 got the win 13-1 over Stratford AFC Div2 and Brad Hickling picked up a four goal Haul. In an all Division 2 affair 4U Computer Solutions Hawera Div2 hosted Taranaki Thru Tubing NP Rangers Div2 and Rangers managed to get the 2-0 win on the road. The final two matches were all Division 1 affairs with Chooks Flooring Ltd NPBHS 3^rd XI Div1 losing 1-4 to the 2015,16 & 18 Champions HEL Rimu NP Rangers Oddbodz Div1 and last year’s runners up Charrua Kaponga Div1 winning 7-2 over  Withers Coachlines Moturoa Div1 with Kaponga player Alexander Oesch taking home a five goal Glut. 

We only had the one Tungsten Legal Duchess Cup Preliminary match on Sunday which saw Woodleigh FC Women’s hosting Naki Electrical Waitara. Waitara running away winners 16-0, Amy Furze netting a six goal double Hat-Trick and Jasmine Burnard-Leppinus scoring a five goal Glut.

Late Sunday and Monday saw Taranaki teams turn to Federation Cup matches in both men’s and women’s. On Sunday in the GR Engineering Women’s Federation Cup the Withers Coachlines Moturoa AFC got a great 1-0 victory over Hokowhitu who are leading the Women’s Federation League at the moment with the hero being Olivia Bright getting the first half strike and Moturoa now move into a semi-final in this competition. Monday in the Lotto Men’s Federation Cup we had Hawera Kitchen’s Hawera host Federation League team Wanganui City and only just going down 4-5 in a nine goal thriller. The last match saw Division 1 side Kaitake FC host Premiership side Flooring Design Moturoa out at Corbett Park and getting a huge 2-0 win over the Prem team. Moturoa went down to ten men in the first half when Sam Westlake handled the ball in the goal mouth resulting in him being sent off and a penalty kick awarded. Before the penalty kick could be taken poor player behaviour by Nathan Morath saw him also getting send off for receiving two yellow cards in a row for dissent leaving Moturoa with nine players for the rest of the match. Paul Cunningham stepped up to slot the pen home and a late goal by Ciaran Forsythe saw Kaitake advance to the quarter finals. Team photo of Kaitake FC from yesterday’s match above.

Article added: Tuesday 04 June 2019