City pull the pin on travelling teams

Wanganui City Football Club have pulled the pin on their travelling teams this year with too few players willing to commit to away fixtures.

President Peter Goldfinch said there was nothing sinister in withdrawing from the Federation League and Western Premiership competition. Rather, it was the result of a lack of players willing to tackle a heavy schedule of away games.

"It just comes down to player numbers and, from season to season, that's always going to happen," Goldfinch said.

"People move on to other things or circumstances change. There will always be those players that do want to travel and they usually join clubs that have teams in those competitions."

Wanganui Athletic will continue in the away competitions - the only club in town doing so this season.

"Some may join Athletic so they can travel and play, but there's nothing to suggest players won't come back into the fold again in the future and City can return teams to those away competitions," Goldfinch said.

Meanwhile, a new football club has emerged on the scene after a splinter group broke away from the Castlecliff Football Club.

The River City Football Club has been formed and has already been sanctioned by Central Football.

Last season's Castlecliff women's coach Craig Toyne confirmed yesterday that some teams would be playing under the new banner this season.

"Ironically, my women's team was called the River City Scrappers and now we have actually joined the new River City Football Club.

"The new club will also have two men's team, I understand. It's been a while since I was involved at committee level, so I don't really know how it came about," Toyne said.

River City Football Club's Daniel Johnston said a faction of the Castlecliff club wanted to head in a slightly different direction, so the new club was formed.

"We had our initial registration day last Sunday and had a good turnout. Some players followed, but we also had new players register with us," Johnson said yesterday.

"We will field a team in the pre-season tournament organised by Athletic at Wembley this weekend and ... will be holding a Special General Meeting in a couple of weeks time to formalise a few things."

Interim club secretary Cathy Norris said they were also keen to cater for junior players:

"The juniors are my passion and, as a club, we need juniors to feed future senior teams."