Football: Whanganui Athletic coach thrilled with Western Premiership title-winning season

Whanganui Athletic Football Club won the 2025 YORB Western Premiership after a 5-0 win against New Plymouth FC Western in the final game.

Football team GJ Gardner Homes Whanganui Athletic have been crowned champions of the 2025 YORB Western Premiership after an emphatic victory in the final game of the season.

Athletic beat New Plymouth Physiotherapy FC Western 5-0 at Wembley Park on August 9 to solidify their position at the top of the league on 40 points – three points above second-placed Levin AFC.

Athletic head coach Aaron Folan said the result was the perfect way to end a positive season, making up for the 2-1 loss the week before to New Plymouth High School First XI.

“After losing last week, it came as a bit of a shock to the system as we thought we were going to go up and win the title up there but it kind of set us back and gave us a reality check,” Folan said.

“Coming into this game and at training all week, all the focus was on us and making sure we put a good performance on.

“I think the first half an hour told you that story and, even though we scored a couple more goals later, we controlled the game really well – I don’t think FC Western really had a chance of getting back into the game.”

Athletic were on the score sheet early courtesy of forward Zachary Farmer just four minutes in, which set the platform for the side to score two more goals before halftime through fullback Logan Bunning and Canadian-Moroccan midfielder Ilias El-Maakoul.

The second half started in similar fashion with 17-year-old winger Christian Peterson slotting the ball in the back of the net three minutes after the restart.

The final goal came from defensive midfielder Ryan Holden in the 87th minute to conclude Athletic’s dominant display.

Athletic will now face YORB Eastern Premiership winners Havelock North Wanderers AFC away on August 16 and play the second leg at Wembley Park the following weekend.

The winner of that fixture will then play the winner of the Capital Premier League in another two-legged fixture to gain promotion into Central League 2.

Folan was thrilled with the efforts from his players and staff throughout the season.

“I’d have bit your hand off if you’d told me it was going to go like this at the start of the year,” Folan said.

“It was really positive; a lot of people spoke about us bringing foreign players in and training four times a week, but this season has been fantastic, the buy-in I got from all the players and staff has been great.

“We’ve been playing really good football, we’ve been scoring goals and been exciting to watch. We are under no illusion that the standard goes up in the playoffs now.”

Folan, who will be in charge again next season, said the majority of players would remain with the club, with some new faces likely to be brought in.

All of the focus is on the next two fixtures to reach the target of promotion.

“The ambition is to get to the Central League 2 which means that we need two positive ties and two positive results.”

Fin Ocheduszko Brown is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.