Wanganui kept their national senior men's hockey final hopes alive with a strong 3-2 win over Southland in Hamilton yesterday.
And that has kept the team in finals contention because of an upset loss to Southland late on Tuesday by Canterbury.
If Wanganui can beat Marlborough this morning, sorting out the finals will come down to a countback situation, goals scored and who beat whom.
Coach Les Wilson said Wanganui's effort was based on strong defence through a first half dominated territorially by Southland, followed by good attack in the second half, which produced two outstandingly taken goals.
Southland led 2-1 at halftime after scoring from the first two of four penalty corners they received, with Wanganui's goal coming from Marty Atkinson - the first of the game.
Then in the second half Wanganui produced nine scoring chances, Wilson said, with Kane Watkin scoring the leveller after a great build-up from Craig Ritani at the back, followed by a run and cross from Brett Puklowski.
Then, with just two minutes to go, the nippy Marty Atkinson scored the winner, a brilliant finish to complete a great win. The one downside, though, was that veteran Trent Williamson strained a hamstring to add to the groin strain suffered by Redvers Wilbur the previous day.
An interesting sidebar to the game was the fact that twin brothers were involved - but on different sides.
Craig Ritani was there for Wanganui, and brother Deon for Southland.
At Gonville, the Wanganui U13 boys found Manawatu a little too strong in their semifinal at the lower North island tournament.
Wanganui had their strong moments on attack but Manawatu scored one goal by Caleb Hansen in the first half and another by James Neilson in the second.
Results from Tuesday and Wednesday:
Wanganui 5 Taranaki 0, Rangitikei 2 Horowhenua 0, Manawatu 2 Wairarapa 0, Hawke's Bay 6 Horowhenua 0, Taranaki 0 Wellington 0, Wanganui 3 Hutt Valley 1, Manawatu 5 Horowhenua 0, Manawatu 2 Wanganui 0.