Soccer: Two Northland teams to battle in Fed final

A Northland club will win this year's Northern Football Federation Cup after Tikipunga and Kerikeri beat Auckland sides to progress through to the final.

Tikipunga dug deep to beat Ranui Swanson 3-2 at Tikipunga Park after trailing 2-1 at half-time. The home side were outplayed in the opening stanza of the game and were 2-0 down after 20 minutes.

They began to adjust to the pace of the game and managed a few raids on the visitors' goal in the final 15 minutes of the spell. During one such break, Marcus Mulhearn was fouled on the edge of the area and took the free kick himself to score a vital goal on the stroke of half-time.

"That goal was great timing for us," his coach Clive Adams said.

"It gave us the momentum and the confidence we needed to get back into the match, and we started the second half on top," he said.

If the first goal was a classy touch, the second was plain ugly but it counted just as much. A corner was partially cleared by the Ranui defence before being returned into the box and eventually, from the resulting melee, Lance Dinsdsale poked the ball home.

The pressure was beginning to mount on the visitors and Tikipunga created the better chances in the final quarter. With about 15 minutes to go, a shot was cleared off the line by the arm of the Ranui captain and the referee had no choice but to send him off and give the home side a penalty.

Steve Crowley made no mistake from the spot and, despite Ranui making the best of their numerical disadvantage in the closing minutes of the game, there was no late equaliser.

Adams was thrilled with the result and said his side were finally hitting their straps.

"They were a top Auckland side and I was thrilled with the way we came back against them, we're timing our run well," he said.

Like Tikipunga, Kerikeri started poorly against Norwest United, who made all of the early running. Their defence played well to neutralise the ball playing Auckland side.

Kerikeri rarely attacked except on breaks but one of these caused panic in the defence and saw the visitors concede an own goal.

Northwest equalised before a Kerikeri defender sighted the Norwest goalkeeper off his line and tried a long range shot that just dropped under the crossbar. Tikipunga and Kerikeri meet in this week's Stafford Choat semifinal before they face-off in the Federation Cup final in three weeks' time.