Birkenhead United to win the cup?

Well we are down to the last 4 of the Chatham Cup. When I went to the Round 2 game between North Wellington and Wellington United I suggested that I might do a follow the winner trail but games clashing with U20 World Cup games and then getting a job which involves working Saturday & Sundays unfortunately ended this plan (and is also the reason I have been a bit lax updating recently – well that and a broken hard drive that took 1 month to get repaired - great customer service OfficeMax!)

If I had followed it I would have seen the following games

R3   Wellington United            2  Western Suburbs     3

R4   New Plymouth Rangers  0  Western Suburbs     4

R5   Wairarapa United            2  Western Suburbs     7

QF   Western Suburbs            0  Napier City Rovers  2

So 21 goals in 4 games, I just know that had I gone they probably would have been 0-0 or 1-0 scorelines instead!

The draw for the semi finals has kept apart Napier City Rovers, the Central League Champions and Eastern Suburbs who are currently 9 points clear in the Northern League with a game in hand so look likely to win that, so we could be set up with a Chatham Cup final between arguably the 2 best clubs sides in the country. If I was a cynic I'd say this was fixed but I've probably just been too accustomed to Scottish Cup draws! 

But this is cup football and I wouldn't rule out Birkenhead United, currently 5^th in the Northern League and with players such as Chad Coombes and Adam Dickinson in their ranks they can't be taken lightly.

The big surprise is Mangere United, currently mid-table in Northern League Division 1. Formed only 15 years ago by the Fijian community in South Auckland. Having Auckland City players Sanni Issa, Mario Bilen & Daewoo Kim has helped as has the kind draw they have had to get to this stage, with Dunedin Technical being the toughest team they have met so far.

So I would love to see Mangere United get up and win the cup, but then I'd love to see a Napier v Eastern Suburbs final as well, so my guessing from this is that Birkenhead will win the cup!

CHATHAM CUP SEMI FINALS - AUGUST 28-29th 2015

Eastern Suburbs v Mangere United

Formed :         1934

Winners :        1951,53,65,68,69

Runners Up :  1955,76,2006

2015 results

R2  BYE

R3  Western Springs (Nth Premier)  Won   4-1

R4  North Shore United (Nth Div 1)  Won   4-1

R5 Tauranga City United (Nth Div 1) Drew 1-1 

      Won 5-3 on pens

QF Cashmere Technical (MPL)         Won  2-1

 V

 Formed :    2000

Cup Best :  Round 5 2002, 04, 06

2015 results

R2  Waikato Unicol (WaiBop Prem)    Won   4-2

R3  Te Puke United (WaiBop Div 1)    Won   7-3

R4  Waitemata City (AFF/NFF Conf)   Won  2-1

R5  Papakura City (Nth Div 2)             Won  3-1

QF Dunedin Technical (Sth Prem)       Won  2-1

Birkenhead United v Napier City Rovers

Formed :    1960

Cup Best :  Quarter Finals, 2012, 13   

2015 results

R2  BYE

R3  Ellerslie (Nth Div 1)                               Won  4-0

R4  Forrest Hill-Milford United (Nth Div 1)   Won  3-1

R5  East Coast Bays (Nth Prem)                 Won  2-0

QF Central United (Nth Prem)                     Won  3-0

 V

  

Formed :         1973

Winners :        1985,93,2000,02

Runners Up :  1997,2011

2015 results

R2  BYE

R3  Stop Out (Central League)        Won  2-1

R4  Palmerston North Marist (CL)   Won  4-2

R5  Wellington Olympic (CL)           Won  4-3

QF  Western Suburbs (CL)              Won  2-0

My only real disappointment is that there are no Wellington teams left but this is purely selfish as I doubt I'm going to be able to travel up to Auckland for either of these games or the final but we shall see.