Wanganui City s Latham Berry (right) will want a good afternoon in New Plymouth today Photo/Bevan Conley
It could all belong to Devon Homes Wanganui Athletic today as they host Team Taranaki on Wembley Park's No1 ground in the Lotto Federation League this afternoon.
In the other big games, Wanganui City make a trip to New Plymouth to face Francis Douglas College in their knockout Federation Cup tie, while the Wanganui Athletic women travel to Palmerston North's Memorial Park tomorrow to face Central League leaders Massey in a match that will be a true test of just how far they've come.
It won't get much bigger for Athletic when they stride out on to the main pitch at 2.30pm bearing the colours of their club with pride.
The equation is simple. A win today, and they win the league. A loss, and those hopes are all over.
While a draw would see them lead the league on goal difference, Athletic would need to place all of their eggs in the basket of next week's catch-up fixture against North End to take out the competition.
Only a single point separates the Reds from current leaders Team Taranaki, who have two losses blemishing a stellar season to date.
Taranaki will be coming to Wanganui with one goal in mind - looking to do better than the last time the two teams met where a single goal late in the match saw the win escape them.
Athletic have struggled with injury problems over the last few weeks, and today sees them still carrying injuries to some crucial players.
Joe Sowden, one of the English imports, was out for last week's match due to a foot injury and, having missed the last three training sessions, may not be available for the starting line-up.
Chris Burney is still unavailable due to ongoing injury issues, while the casualty list mounted at Thursday's training when Anthony Bell pulled up lame with a groin injury.
Adam Gill was rested last night to tend to a quad injury, although he is expected to be fit.
Today also sees the return to Wembley of Kyle Graham-Luke, to face the Athletic club whose kit he was wearing not too many weeks ago.
"The mood in the camp is positive and the team are ready for a battle. There will be some big individual battles out there," said player-coach Troy Smith.
"We've had two good trainings this week. We know how big this weekend's match is. We can win the league, but we could also lose it."
Athletic will need to come out strong and quickly gain control, as Taranaki have shown in previous rounds that when they take the lead, they are very hard to reel back in.
But it will be Athletic's stoic defensive line which again will play a crucial part, as Taranaki has shown they're not afraid to take opportunities on-goal. Athletic too will need to return the favour and make the most of any sight of a score.
There will be no love lost out on the pitch, so referee Matt Stoneman and his assistants will have their work cut out for them in 90 minutes of emotion.
The team that can keep composure and rein in their emotions will take away the honours.
I can't see a draw happening, so I'm picking Athletic to win the match 2-0.
While the local focus will be on Wembley's main fixture, Wanganui City also have a crucial match today in New Plymouth, as they look to progress in the Federation Cup tie against Francis Douglas Memorial College on the school grounds.
With this being a quarterfinal match, City will have one eye on the title already, and could well be eyeing up their trophy cabinet seeing where the cup would sit best.
But recent weeks have seen City become less dominant in the Western Premiership than they were in the opening rounds, even though the results have still been going their way.
Francis Douglas currently sit sixth of nine teams in the Taranaki Premier League.
They know how to find the back of the net, having scored 23 goals in their 10 outings, but also seem to have a leaky defence, conceding 24.
City have shown they can control games through a dominant midfield workrate largely orchestrated by Chris Annabell.
Carl Bond could be making a return to the City squad for this fixture, which would present Francis Douglas with a formidable pairing to have to break down before they can create any real attacking opportunities.
City coach Kelvin Francis does have his own attacking dilemma to deal with, having key striker Jamie Lambe out for the match.
Jake Lockett and Cody Wainhouse were to be replacement options, but with Wainhouse rolling his ankle at Thursday's training and unlikely to be fit for today's match, Francis' options were again limited.
"We don't really want to take an injured player with us, as we could just be wasting a sub," he said.
"But we have other options. We can change our shape, maybe just play one up front, and five in the middle."
While the shape may change for City, the game plan will be the same.
"We've just got to use the width of the park, and do what we've been doing well," said Francis.
With City's tight defensive record, and their ability to control games from the outset, I'm picking this match to swing heavily in their favour - a 4-1 victory and ticket to the next round.
Tomorrow will be a big test for the Wanganui Athletic women of how far they have progressed as a team since the opening rounds of Central League.
Facing up against current leaders Massey will be a big ask for the women in red, after they were handed a lesson in football when hosting at Wembley in the first round.
Assistant coach Neihana Kahl has done a great job in working with the girls, getting them to play more possession-based football, which was clearly seen paying dividends through their numerous attacking opportunities last weekend.
Melanie Ragg has been a great addition in goal for Athletic, with her dominant attitude key to keeping scorelines reasonable in recent games
Her commanding voice and composed demeanour has allowed her to conduct the back line in front of her, and providing a solid base from which they can build attacks.
Getting a result for this match may be out of the reach of Athletic as they build a game style, but smaller goals will be more of the focus on Sunday.