National cup games come to North Shore

The focus of two national football competitions turns to Auckland in what is shaping up to be a significant weekend for the Northern Football Federation.

Three of the four semi-final matches across the Chatham Cup and Women’s Knockout Cup will be played in the Northern Football Federation (NFF) region.

On Saturday at 2pm Glenfield Rovers host Upper Hutt City at McFetridge Park in the Women’s Knockout Cup.

On Sunday at 2pm Birkenhead United host Miramar Rangers at Shepherds Park and Waitakere City welcome Three Kings to Whenuapai in the Chatham Cup.

The other semi-final in the women’s competition sees Forrest Hill Milford travel to Christchurch to play Cashmere Technical.

NFF football development manager Darren Bazeley says the NFF clubs’ cup runs represent a positive outlook for the local game. ‘‘To have an NFF team represented in each of the semi-final matches in the Chatham Cup and Women’s Knockout Cup is a major achievement,’’ Bazeley says.

‘‘The potential to have both mens and womens finals being all from NFF would be a dream, and something that I’m not sure would ever have happened previously.’’

Cup ties are drawn at random and Bazeley says the region will make the most of hosting rights. ‘‘It gives us a really great opportunity to showcase the game, bring in some good crowds, create a good atmosphere and host some festival type activities to help promote the game, in general, and also boost the chances for our NFF clubs to win their game. I look forward to some of them achieving the final and ultimately bringing some football silverware to our region.’’

None of this year’s Chatham Cup semi-finalists are strangers to the latter stages of the competition. Birkenhead and Three Kings are the only two yet to lift the trophy. This is a second consecutive semi-final appearance for Birkenhead, while Three Kings finished runners-up in 2009. Miramar have won the cup four times and Waitakere enjoyed a golden run in the mid-1990s with a trio of successive triumphs from 1994. Glenfield Rovers are the defending Women’s Knockout Cup champions, having won the trophy in 2015, 2014 and 2011. Forrest Hill Milford finished runnersup in the 2014 final.