City's Dan Alpin and his team must win today while hoping their Premiership rival Hokowhitu stumble.
Like all the great football leagues around the world, the title race for the Horizons Premiership will be decided on the final weekend, as second-placed Big Orange Wanganui City 1sts will head to university to meet Massey Celtic this afternoon.
City coach Kelvin Francis will be keeping one eye on the pitch and the other on his cellphone, as eight minutes drive from the campus, the Premiership leaders Hokowhitu FC Rangers need just one more good shift against fourth-placed Palmerston North Boys High at Hokowhitu Park.
While there's still some catchup matches for rain postponements to be played next weekend by teams down the ladder, today is the finish for the two leading sides as well as the schoolboys.
After weeks of wet weather, conditions should be perfect in Palmerston North with clear skies and temperatures around 17 degrees, although even if City could open up to repeat their 9-0 hammering of Massey on April 29, it is unlikely to swing the points differential gap on Hokowhitu back in their favour, meaning PNBHS need to do the biggest favour by getting the upset win, as a draw will still secure the title for the home side.
PNBHS are capable on their day as their 2-1 victory over City proved on July 1 proved - which is a result that now haunts coach Kelvin Francis and his team as they trail Hokowhitu by a solitary point.
Dan Alpin and Latham Berry were in solid form last week against North End despite the horrible conditions, and more is needed today.
In a metaphor of his team being so close yet so far, Anthony Bell's two goals against North End currently leaves him in fourth for the season standings on 15, after Hokowhitu's Nicholas Carrick (18) and Phillip King (16) got to run riot in their team's 11-0 slaughter of Marist Development.
A private joke with Francis has been what City can bribe the PNBHS lads with to play the game of their lives today - perhaps a week's supply of pizza and soft drink, given anything of more substance would not be appropriate for teenagers.
Both matches kickoff at 2.45pm.
Likewise hoping to finish with a flourish and ideally finish Lotto Federation League runnersup for 2017 are Devon Homes Wanganui Athletic, who are splitting the difference with the Gisborne Thistle by meeting them at Park Island in Napier.
"It's a bit of equal travel distance for both of us, it's about three hours for them and three hours for us," said coach Jason King.
"Trying to blame the game on travel won't work for either team."
The squad departs home at around 10am to arrive in time to shake the legs out, although they will be without goal keeper Matt Calvert who is on stand down after his two yellow cards last week in the shock loss to Massey Men's 1st.
While Kelvin Hove took over the gloves with Calvert's departure against Massey, King has tapped defender Symon King to take on the role today, with Jake Simcox being promoted from the GVCA Wanganui Athletic Reserves again to offer defence cover.
"It was certainly not that clear cut as to who got the gloves, but we certainly got there in the end," said Jason King.
"It's a tough ask for [Simcox] but he's stood up in the past with these predicaments."
The Thistle have fallen to Athletic in both their previous meetings - 2-0 in Gisborne on April 29 and 3-1 at Wembley Park on July 1 - but after losing 5-2 to uncatchable League leaders AFC Havelock North last Sunday, King is expecting them to hit the brittle Athletic defence with everything in a bid to finish fourth on the table.
King himself will wait until his team have secured the win before he rings the Massey Men's manager to see how the underdogs have gone in their last match with second-placed New Plymouth Rangers.
"We can worry about the mathematical stuff once that final whistle's gone.
"We're having to hope the wind blows in our favour up in Taranaki."
Rangers lead Athletic by two points, which shows how important last Saturday's loss was, but if Massey can flip the script for the second straight weekend then King's squad have the silver placing they have desired ever since it became clear Havelock North were untouchable.
In addition, Ryan Holden has closed to within two goals behind Ranger's Sam De St Croix (19) for the right to finish stop of the season's goal scorers standings.
"If Ryan puts a bag load away and Sam has an off day, that's a golden boot," said King.
The Athletic Reserves still have two matches remaining on their Premiership calender, including their last home fixture today against bottom-ranked Marist Development at Wembley.