Upper
Hutt City 3 Seatoun 0
Sunday
4th September
Petone
Memorial
Attendance
: about 100
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| Upper Hutt City players with Kelly Cup Photo The JourneyFan |
The 44th final of New
Zealand's oldest women's football trophy was played on Sunday between
Upper Hutt City & Seatoun.
Seatoun have dominated this
competition in recent years appearing in 14 of the last 17 finals,
winning 11 of them. Upper Hutt City's predecessors Upper Hutt United
were the first ever winners of the Kelly Cup way back in 1973 when
they beat Naenae 2-0. Since then Upper Hutt teams have made 4
appearances in the Cup, Upper Hutt United lost 2-1 to Palmerston
North Saints in 1974. Upper Valley Wanderers lost 8-2 to Petone in
1993 and Upper Hutt City lost 3-2 to Seatoun in 2006 & 2008.
Last season Seatoun did the double of
the Central League and Kelly Cup, but this season hasn't been as good
to them managing only 4 wins in the league and finishing 4th
19 points of 1st place.
The young Upper Hutt City team have
had a pretty good season, just missing out on the Central League
title by 3 points to Wellington United and getting to the semi final
of the National Women's Knockout Cup where they met cup holders
Glenfield Rovers and while many in Auckland were saying they'd do
well to keep Glenfield to 6 goals, they played well and only lost 1-0
to a late goal.
So today's game was both teams chance
to get some silverware for the season.
The teams had met three times this
season, twice in the league and once in the Knockout Cup each time
the result was 1-0 to Upper Hutt City.
It took Upper Hutt City 10 minutes to
open the scoring through Emma Main. The game was fairly even although
Seatoun were having trouble breaking down the solid Upper Hutt
defence and when Main got a second 5 minutes before half time it was
a deserved goal for Upper Hutt City.
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| Julia Baldwin (Seatoun) & Kennedy Bryant (UHC) battle for the ball The JourneyFan |
The second half was more of the same,
Upper Hutt created several opportunities but their shots always
seemed to pick out Seatoun's keeper, Anna Wittman-Wenzel. Their
defence was solid though and Seatoun just couldn't get past it. Then
with 10 minutes left Upper Hutt City's captain, Mikaela Hunt fired in
a shot from about 20 meters to make it 3-0 and secure the Kelly Cup,
a fitting finale for Hunt who was playing her last game for Upper
Hutt City as she's off to Otago University next year.
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| UHC Captain Mikaela Hunt with Kelly Cup The JourneyFan |
So congratulations to Upper Hutt City
on winning the Kelly Cup and finishing their season with some
silverware. Kudos as well to Seatoun who while having a disappointing
season are still a quality team and I wouldn't be surprised if they
are back challenging for the top spot next season.
Also kudos to Capital Football who
produced a program for this game and the Curtain raiser – The Executive Shield Final (won 3-0 by Island Bay United over North
Wellington)
While I'd be saying see you all next
season, the Women's National League starts in just over a months time
(October 16th) so bring it on!
FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THE GAME CLICK HERE
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| Upper Hutt City - Kelly Cup Champions 2016 The JourneyFAN |
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