Birkenhead
United 3 Waitakere City 2
Chatham
Cup Final
QBE
Stadium, Auckland
Sunday
11th September 2016
Attendance
4216
 |
| The Chatham Cup Photo The JourneyFan |
The 89th
Chatham Cup Final took place on Sunday at QBE Stadium in Auckland
between Cup final debutantes, Birkenhead United, and Waitakere City,
three times winners who were making their 7th appearance
in the final.
The game
was preceded by the 23rd National Women's Knockout Cup
Final, between Glenfield Rovers and Forrest Hill-Milford United. So
all 4 cup finalists came from the Northern Football Federation. This,
we were told in the program by NZF CEO, Andy Martin, “.....is a
unique occurrence and one that has only taken place once before, in
2001.”
Now just
to prove that it's not only the CEO of NZF that can make gaff's, I
made an elementary one. Having not seen either club play before and
unusually not having done my homework, I somehow managed to confuse
the teams! Even when I thought it was odd that Glenfield Rovers were
singing how high do you want the goal at their own player I never
clicked until talking to someone at half time!
So if you want to know
what happened in that game check out reports from
I did get some photo's which are here
While
Waitakere City had the cup pedigree of the 2 finalists, they could
technically claim to be the underdogs as they had spent the season in
Northern League Division 1 (which they won), while Birkenhead United
still have a mathematical (but unlikely) chance of winning the
Northern Premier Division. Saying that Waitakere City had managed to
beat 2 Northern Premier teams in Glenfield Rovers (1-0) and Three
Kings United (6-1) and Football South champions, Caversham (3-1) en
route to the final.
Birkenhead
United hadn't had an easy route to the final with only 1 game played
at home, the semi final, a 3-1 win over another team that hadn't had
any home games Wellington's Miramar Rangers. While Birkenhead
United's away travel distance of 60km was dwarfed by Miramar's
2000km, all but one of their games (a 7-2 win over Fencibles) was
against Northern Premier league opposition (Western Springs 2-0, East
Coast Bays 5-3 & Forrest Hill-Milford United 3-0).
Both
teams had players with experience with ex All White's in Waitakere
City's goalkeeper Ross Nicholson and player-coach Jake Butler, while
Birkenhead United had Jarrod Smith and current All White, Sam
Burfoot.
 |
| Ex All White 40 year old Ross Nicholson (WC) Photo The JourneyFan |
The game
started with a flurry of Yellow cards, ref John Rowbury issued 3 in
the first 4 minutes and it was up to 7 by half time. It seemed the
game wouldn't finish with 22 players on the field. It didn't but it
was a surprise that it wasn't until the 97th minute before
Birkenhead United's Ryan Cain was sent off for a 2nd
yellow card.
The
teams were pretty even but it was Birkenhead United that went into
the break 2-0 up thanks to 2 Jarrod Smith goals and that was a fair
reflection as while Waitakere matched Birkenhead and despite the hard
work of Dylan Manickum up front they were unable to create many
chances, and when they did they found Damian Hirst on top form.
The 2nd
half saw more of the same, yellow cards, half chances created,
Birkenhead United looking the slightly better team. With about 10
minutes to go I started to think about heading round to the tunnel
to get some photos of the crowd and the cup presentation. Just then
Birkenhead broke and Dan Morgan managed a shot that beat Ross
Nicholson but Waitakere City were saved by the post. That moment
would have won the cup for Birkenhead had it gone in but what it did
was seem to spark Waitakere City into life and within a minute some dogged persistence from the excellent Dylan Manickum mixed with a bit of
panic in the Birkenhead United defence made the score 2-1.
Waitakere
City were on the up and then they got a penalty which Keegan
Linderboom made no mistake in putting away. Waitakere City almost
sealed a stunning win in the 91st minute but Hirst kept
Adyn Kettle's shot out.
 |
| Linderboom scores from the spot Photo The JourneyFan |
The
first period of extra time was all Waitakere City. Birkenhead
United's 21 year old keeper Daimian Hirst, tipped a shot over the
bar, 5 minutes later he was beaten by Steven MacDonald but his shot
found the post instead the back of the net. Birkenhead United looked relieved when the ref blew for half time.
 |
| Daimin Hirst tips the ball over the bar Photo The JourneyFan |
 |
| Nicholson drops the ball |
Then it
was Birkenhead United's turn to attack and when a cross came in, Ross
Nicholson had what looked like an easy catch, it may have been the
presence of the huge Ethan Galbraith or his own defender, James
Olausen that put him off, who or whatever it was he dropped the ball
and Galbraith swiveled and shot to make it 3-2 and the 41st
different name on the cup was Birkenhead United's.
The game
had gone from being a reasonable one that looked as if it would end
2-0 to one of the all time classic finals, both teams and their
supporters made it a fantastic day and a great advert for local
football (big up to NZF for getting the games on to Sky TV)
Congratulations
to Birkenhead United – 2016 Chatham Cup Winners
Comments
Post a Comment