North Shore Times (New Zealand)
Premier football teams lose title race
As the 2017 Northern Region Football League season drew to a close, few North Shore clubs had much to celebrate.
Forrest Hill Milford couldn’t avoid relegation when they took on Three Kings United at Keith Hay Park. Forrest Hill needed three points to escape the drop down from the NRFL premiership to first division, but came across a strong Three Kings side eventually falling 3-0.
East Coast Bays finished off their season with a 4-1 loss to Central United, leaving Bays in seventh place in the premiership. Glenfield Rovers hosted already relegated Manurewa at McFetridge Park, where the home side were looking to secure second place with a win dependent on the result of rivals Birkenhead’s match.
A brace from AJ O’Toole and a goal to Mikael Munday saw Rovers pull off a 3-1 win. Birkenhead rounded off their season with a win over last season’s NRFL premier champions Eastern Suburbs 5-0. Goals to Yuki Ohtsuka (2), Harrison BoltonRoberts, Roussin Nkoy and Wade Molony saw Birkenhead finish in second, while Glenfield could only achieve third.
In division one, the sole representative side from the Shore, North Shore United could only achieve fourth place after being seven points off from the top two. They welcomed already promoted Manukau City to Allen Hill Stadium. An own goal from Manukau’s Hone Fowler sealed the result for North Shore to win the match 1-0.
In division 2, Takapuna travelled down to the Bay of Plenty to face Ngongotaha, and were chasing a win that would push them to third. However, the match was cancelled due to an unsafe pitch and the result stood as a 0-0 draw.
Albany United were hoping to end their struggling season with a win, as they travelled across the bridge to Murdoch Park to square up against bottom side, Papatoetoe.
A brace of goals to Keagan Brophy and Aiden Widdows as well as a penalty from Josh Hadfield gave Albany the 5-1 win to finish their season off on a positive result.
Birkenhead reserves were crowned champions of the 2017 Reserve Knockout Cup, beating Western Springs in the final 8-2, with goals to Tom Fisher (3), Daniel Lough (2), Moses Akimana, Jack Jelly and Matthew Banks.