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Onehunga Sports are the Chatham Cup Champions for the first time after a thrilling final was played out against Central United in bitterly cold conditions in Auckland yesterday.
The Hiroshi Miyazawa-side fought back from being a goal down on three occasions to finish 3-3 at the end of full time and extra time. They went on to defeat Central 6-5 on penalties in one of the all-time great finals in the 90th Chatham Cup.
In a tense penalty shootout, with the first six attempts from Onehunga finding the back of the net, it was a save from Louie Caunter against Central’s Albert Riera which proved the defining moment.
Northern League premier champions Onehunga followed Birkenhead’s example from last year in winning one of New Zealand oldest sporting trophies for the first time and in doing so completed a rare leaguecup double.
In the earlier Women’s Knockout Cup final also at QBE Stadium, Glenfield Rovers were the dominant team but it was a close run thing as they beat Eastern Suburbs.
Glenfield held off Suburbs to win 5-4, their fourth title in the past six finals, with Kate Loye awarded the Maia Jackman Trophy for player of the final.
“There is a huge amount of elation within our team right now,” said Glenfield coach Andy Clay. “It felt like one of those horror movies where we killed the Mummy but it kept on coming back to life. That was what it felt like [yesterday] with Eastern Suburbs. Credit to them for that. We controlled the game for the most part and in general I thought we deserved the win.”
Two goals apiece from Dayna Stevens and Georgia Brown, and one from captain Tessa Burger accounted for Glenfield’s goals, while a Jacqui Hand penalty, two goals from Hannah Pilley and one from Kate Seatter scored for Suburbs.