Football: Northland FC consigned to relegation

Any hopes of a miraculous escape from relegation disappeared for Northland FC with a 2-0 defeat by Takapuna on Saturday.

The result was a fair indication of how the match - and the season - have gone with Northland battling hard against a superior team but unable to finish chances when they presented themselves.

Northland co-coach Dave Alabaster said that even after last weekend's morale boosting win over Claudelands Rovers it was always going to be a hard ask to beat Takapuna who are third in Northern League Division Two.

"We knew that if we were going to win we were going to have to be on top of our game and despite a good effort from the boys we weren't quite there," he said.

The performance at Tikipunga mirrored the entire season.

"We played as well as we've played all year really, we worked really hard and despite the score it was one of our better games," Alabaster said.

They conceded a relatively soft goal just 10 minutes into the match after Takapuna broke down the right side and caught the Northland defense out of shape.

The second goal came midway through the second spell and was a virtually unstoppable strike that goalkeeper Jeff Bigwood managed to get his fingertips to but was unable to keep out of the top left hand corner of the net.

Northland had their chances in front of goal with a Kyle Levell drive the most notable, which drew a fantastic save from the Takapuna keeper but there were enough opportunities for the players to imagine what could have been when the final whistle blew.

"Takapuna were just a little too good, they took their chances and we lacked a little bit of quality when we needed it - like in front of goal," Alabaster said.

The team just has one game left - against Te Atatu next weekend at Tikipunga - but it is already consigned to relegation from the bottom tier of the Northern League. The Northland FC board will now have to decide exactly what that means for the club.