The weather cancelling a friendly fixture with a select team combined of North End and Massey players meant that this was Athletics' only game in between their season-ending drubbing of Massey and their play-off match.
This gave players the opportunity to rest and recover but also derailed the train by slowing the momentum built through an undefeated season.
Match fitness and getting back into good habits and avoiding injuries were Calvert's main focuses from this game and the result was not a priority. That being said, Athletic did not come all this way to return disheartened and although the reds started disjointed and rusty, they took an early lead through a thunderous Joblin-Hall strike which the keeper got a hand to but could not do enough as he palmed it into the top right corner.
Athletic requested the game to be played in thirds to enable squad rotation and formation changes, Calvert using this to deal with potential scenarios for this weekend's game.
The quality improved as the game went on and Athletic finished up as 5-1 winners with a comfortable, controlled game and came away relatively unscathed, although Taupo struggled to grasp the term "friendly" and had a significantly higher foul count throughout the match.
Heading back down the country, Stop Out have live updates across their Twitter account which the team followed closely in the changing rooms after the match. Stop Out conceded a late goal to go down 3-2 to Lower Hutt, meaning Island Bay would leapfrog them on the last day with a victory.
With no live updates, the boys headed into the Taupo AFC clubrooms tensely awaiting a post. A loud gasp is finally heard as the announcement of a 0-0 draw means that Stop Out are crowned Capital Premier League champions for 2022 and Whanganui Athletic play-off opposition.
Wembley Park plays host to the first leg of the 2022 Central League Play-off fixture beating Whanganui Athletic and Stop Out, a repeat of the play-off in 2014, although Athletic will not want to have a repeat of the scoreline as they saw nine unanswered goals hit the back of their net across the two fixtures.
Athletic had an almost identical season this year as they had 12 wins and two draws from their 14 fixtures, scoring 48 and only conceding seven. The 2014 season saw the same results and goals scored but the previous generation netted four times less than the current side.
Athletic will be expecting a big crowd and hoping their unrivalled support will help them gain an early advantage in the first league before they head down to Lower Hutt a week later. It will be the first clash in many years at Wembley where Athletic will not be the only red team and the sea of red in the crowd may not purely be Whanganui fans.
Get on down to Wembley Park this Saturday at 2.45pm and get behind the boys in red as they aim to be the first Whanganui team in the Central League in the 21st century.
