Nail-biting finish to Charity final

Jonathan Hussey takes the ball, watched by Kevin Keegan in the Charity Cup final at Wembley Park last Saturday. PHOTO/BEVAN CONLEY

Both Charity finals provided plenty of interest for the pundits last Saturday with results coming out in favour of the sides more fancied from the start.

However in the plate final it was Castlecliff who pushed Athletic all the way, with the latter settling the affair when Peter James netted from the penalty spot late on.

In fact, the match probably deserved to go into extra time such was the closeness, although maybe not what two groups of players at the end of a long season wanted.

Nonetheless, both sides had their opportunities in an open, free flowing match. Maybe due to the tired legs and a No1 pitch which has been well used this season making fluent passing difficult, both sides' final pass or shot would not sit down for the killer blow.

Athletic regaining the Plate adds to the Bowl won a week earlier by Cosmos Classics.

The Cup final always had a clear favourite in City 1sts when they took on clubmates City Hammers rightly so with the former quicker, more composed and more technically adept.

A final score of 4-1 is a fair reflection with the older Hammers tiring with 10 minutes left, when the 1sts netted two late goals to put the result to bed and retain the coveted Charity Cup.

Hammers gained some respect for putting in a solid shift against a side who would have expected more goals.

The ones they did score were well set up with Jake Lockett, Chris Annabell and Anthony Bell the benefactors of good build-up work.

However, the best was a singular long range strike out of the top drawer from Jordan Hodgkinson.

For the Hammers, Daniel Aplin converted the penalty kick he worked hard to earn, and went close a couple of times as the Hammers endeavoured throughout to play some football against a superior side. With all competitions now completed, there have been some teams who have warranted extra mention this year for their combined efforts.

None more so than the Athletic ladies, who last weekend won their way to the Women's 2014 Central League.

Their local counterparts, Athletic Women, defended their local league title.

The City Hammers also defended their men's local league title, as well as winning the first qualifying round, while Castlecliff United claimed the men's bottom six win.

Also outstanding this year, the 'First Kicks' and 'Fun Football' programmes at junior levels, with participation well beyond expectations.

As well as solid representation from local juniors at Federation trials, a great age group competition locally bodes well for the future.

For the travelling teams in the men's grades, it was always going to be a hard act for City 1sts to follow up with another league title.

With personnel changes due to work and family commitments, a core of the winning group was AWOL as it were, and while those who stood up to the challenge of a new Federation league did themselves justice the other sides namely PN Marist and Redsox had developed their squads faster to really take the league by the scruff of the neck.

In the Western Premiership, Athletic made a conscious decision to rebuild at a lower league.

While the first half of the season was rough in terms of gaining winning results, perseverance, patience and a bit of hard work paid off in the second round.

City Reserves were a mirror image of their Athletic counterparts, with a great start and in contention.

Somehow inconsistency became an issue and at times, with their 1st team requiring playing numbers, the core was missing.

For both it will be a summer to reflect and rebuild once more.

Results Charity Cup: City 1sts beat City Hammers 4-1; Charity Plate: Wanganui Athletic beat Castlecliff A 1-0.