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| Wellington United captain Asha Strom with the Kelly Cup The JourneyFan |
2018 KELLY CUP FINAL
Wellington United 2 Waterside Karori 1
Saturday 1st September, 2018
Petone Memorial, Lower Hutt
Attendance 100ish
Attendance 100ish
The 46th edition of New Zealand's oldest women's football trophy, The Kelly Cup, was decided on Saturday. It saw two league champions, W-League's Wellington United up against Capital Premier Champions Waterside Karori. So whoever won there was going to be a league and cup double completed. Both teams had only lost one game during the season, Waterside Karori went down 7-0 to Wellington United in the Kate Sheppard Cup, while Wellington United lost 4-2 to Dunedin Technical in the semi final of that same competition.
The Kelly Cup was presented to the Wellington Women's FA in 1973 by Terry Nutter of the Newlands United club. He apparently proposed naming it after himself but back in the early 70s people weren't too keen on having a trophy called The Nutter Cup! So instead it was named after the original chairman of the Wellington Women's FA, Mr Pat Kelly. Up until the introduction of the National Women's Knockout Cup (now Kate Sheppard Cup) in 1994, the Kelly Cup was the premium cup competition in the lower North Island. The cup has been dominated by two clubs, Miramar Rangers, who have won it 15 times, including 13 times in 17 years through the 70s and 80s. Seatoun are the other club who have dominated it winning 11 times, including a record seven in a row in the 2000s.
Waterside Karori are the next most successful club with four wins, while before today's game Wellington United had been in two finals but had lost them both.
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| Waterside Karori's Lauren Owen takes out Wellington United's Jemma Roberston The JourneyFan |
It looked a beautiful sunny day, but that was deceptive and it was actually quite cold and had a typically strong Petone wind, the sort that meant through balls should really be played to feet as there was no chance the strikers would be able to catch the ball no matter how fast they were! Unfortunately neither team really sussed this out. United dominated the game from the outset but despite all the territory and majority of the possession they weren't getting any shots on goal. When they finally scored in the 34th minute it was from the spot after Waterside Karori's Lauren Owen took out Jemma Robertson in the penalty area. Marjie van Dam calmly slotted the ball home. Their lead only lasted five minutes when Waterside's Katie Barrott, playing in her third Kelly Cup Final in a row (the other two for Upper Hutt City), pushed the ball back to Anshuka Desai who hit a sweet shot low in to the bottom corner giving Wellington United keeper Rosnia Lipi no chance.
The second half was again mostly Wellington United and anyone in Wellington wondering where their bus may have gotten to could have done worse than check out the Waterside Karori defence, which was very effective. United did hit the post and the crossbar but the ball just wasn't going in for them and extra time looked on the cards until the 90th minute Sarah Alder fired a shot from about 25 yards out into the top of the net and give Wellington United the Kelly Cup for the first time.
It wasn't a spectacular game, the weather saw to that, and while Waterside Karori would have been gutted to lose to a goal in the last minute, it was a deserved win for Wellington United. Waterside Karori showed though that they can foot it with the W-League champions and if they can strengthen the depth of their squad a bit and make the adjustment to Saturday games next season they won't be just making up the numbers.
For Wellington United it was a great way to finish off a successful season and coach Guillermo Schiltenwolf had bought through many of the younger players from the reserve Sapphires team for experience and for Wellington United as an ad for a UK mobile phone provider used to say "the futures bright, the futures orange!"
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