Heavy Equipment Services Gisborne United are now set to have home advantage when they take on a team two levels above them in the cup final.
They will meet Federation League side North End, of Palmerston North, at Harry Barker Reserve at 12.30pm.
North End beat Napier City Rovers Reserves 2-0 at Bluewater Stadium, the City Rovers home ground a couple of hundred metres from the Park Island pitch on which Gisborne United played.
Conditions played a big part in both semifinals. The ground was heavy, the ball slippery and the wind strong, but both sides in the Gisborne United-Peringa game tried to play passing football. Sometimes the direct route paid off, though.
In the 23rd minute, Adam Simpson won possession at rightback and hit a long ball down the line to striker Stu Cranswick. He got past his marker and cut in towards goal. With player-coach and fellow striker Josh Adams making a far-post run, the Peringa goalkeeper was in two minds and moved off his line to cover the pass to Adams. Cranswick slotted the ball in at the near post.
In the 40th minute, a Peringa shot from the edge of the penalty area hit the underside of the bar and bounced down and out. An attacker rose to head the rebound goalwards and Piper, wrongfooted, twisted back to his right and palmed the ball away for Simpson to clear to the sideline.
The move from the ensuing throw-in culminated in a cross that met with a glancing header and a Marfell sidefoot-clearance from just in front of the goal-line.
In the 42nd minute, Gisborne United went two up. Piper took a free-kick from the edge of the box and it beat all attempts to clear it. Marfell found himself in the clear and he blasted the ball high into the net from 12 metres.
Peringa were playing some good football with no pay-off in terms of goals, and in the 52nd minute suffered a hammer blow to their hopes of a fightback. One of their defenders stopped a promising attack by fouling Dane Thompson, and was sent off as it was his second yellow-card offence.
In the 57th, Marfell evened the numbers for 10 minutes by being sin-binned for dissent.
He was back to send over the 73rd-minute left-wing free-kick that led to midfielder Corey Adams rifling home the third goal after a goalmouth scramble.
Two minutes later an Aaron Graham challenge from behind resulted in a penalty for Peringa but Piper saved well, diving full-length to his right to stop the ball and then gather it in.
In second-half stoppage time, James Bristow was penalised for a foul in the penalty area, but the spot kick sailed over the bar and Peringa were left to ponder what might have been.
Gisborne United lined up with Piper in goal, Kieran Higham sweeping behind centrebacks Jonathan Purcell and Jonny Curle, Graham as holding midfielder, Corey Adams and Thompson as central midfielders, Simpson wide on the right and Marfell on the left, with Josh Adams and Cranswick up front.
Curle came off at halftime with an ankle injury and was replaced by Bristow, who went to leftback. United changed from a 3-5-2 system to 4-3-3, with Simpson dropping to rightback.
Late in the game, Baxter Mackay came on for Marfell and played up front, with Josh Adams moving to the left wing.
Player-coach Adams said his team's warm-up was a little sluggish and he reminded them they needed to “get off the bus” and be ready to go from the start. He was pleased with their response, and especially impressed with the performances of Piper, Higham, Purcell, Graham, Corey Adams and Thompson.
Josh Adams said the after-match function was attended by all the semifinalists, and the North End speaker had said he hoped the clubs could agree on Bluewater Stadium as a neutral venue for the final.
Adams said he was against that idea.
Gisborne United had gone into the semifinal knowing that the winners of their game against Peringa had been drawn as home team for the final.
A Napier venue would not mean the finalists would start on even terms. The road trip from Palmerston North was much easier than the one from Gisborne.
Harry Barker Reserve is named on Central Football's website as the cup final venue. Adams does not expect that to change.
Another consideration is big-match atmosphere. The semifinal, played on an open field with a smattering of spectators, offered little in that department.
Bluewater Stadium is an enclosed ground with a grandstand and attached clubrooms on one side and tiered uncovered seating on the other. It is a well-developed club facility, but a final held there would be unlikely to draw a crowd as big or as animated as one held at the home ground of either of the finalists.
