Whanganui Athletic Reserves are Federation Cup Champions

The Athletic team pictured celebrating with the Federation Cup trophy.

After an outstanding season in the Horizon’s Western Premiership, Whanganui Athletic Reserves have also gone on an uncharacteristic cup run as well. After finishing dead last in the league in 2022, their comfortable 2nd place finish this year showed the depth within the club and the turnaround coach Sean Petersen had made within the Reserve squad.

Athletic had made their way to the Federation Cup final through three testing games against clubs throughout the Central Region. The first game was in early April against Hawke’s Bay side, Port Hill, where the Reds came out on top of a 4-3 game through goals to captain David Garner, Renzo Pinas and a brace to Tre De John.

Tre De John, Quinn Mailman, Karan Holland and Thomas Cudby.

A two-month gap between that victory and their next match against New Plymouth Rangers was the perfect amount of time to get their momentum running as they won three out of four games in the build-up, scoring 15 goals across those matches. Finding the back of the net was not a problem but keeping the ball out of theirs seemed to be a little difficult as these wins came in high-scoring games from both sides. This was something that they worked on and was key in their next-round victory as they set up a structured and disciplined side that picked up a valiant 2-0 away win over Rangers at Yarrow Stadium.

In the semi-final, they drew Napier Marist away at Park Island. Marist had run riot in their league, winning 11 of 12 games and obtaining a +39 goal difference across those games, including scoring an outrageous and unheard-of 20 goals in their last two games of the season. They played attacking football and loved to use their pace up top but often left themselves vulnerable at the back as a consequence. A Mailman double and a Hoekstra penalty were enough to put the game to bed and a late Marist goal was in vain as the Reds held on to a 3-1 scoreline to earn a spot in the Federation Cup final.

During this game, Napier City Rovers Reserves had a comfortable 3-0 win over this year’s Taranaki Premiership champions Peringa United. This meant Whanganui Athletic Reserves had the mammoth task of playing Federation League side Napier City Reserves. During the week after the semi-finals, Central Football did a live draw across their Facebook page to decide who would host the final. Whanganui Athletic was drawn first and earned the privilege of hosting the Federation Cup final in front of their passionate and loyal home crowd at Wembley Park.

You could not have picked a better day for the cup final; the sun was out, the pitch was looking sharp and the wind was minimal. The weather gods had been kind. The stage was set. Both sides started a little shaky, the nerves of a cup final are hard to shake off but Rovers made the most of a defensive error as Alex Mort found himself on the end of a bouncing ball in the 18-yard box and without hesitation, blasted it into the roof of the net over 17-year-old Tyler Turner.

As quite often it does, this goal woke Athletic up and they started to find themselves more into the game than they had in the opening 10 minutes. Mailman proved to be difficult to mark up front and his presence in the air was causing problems for the Rovers back-line. He found himself meeting the ball off a corner in the 24th minute only for Graney to tip it over the bar with a strong hand. In this corner, Mailman was first to the ball again as he won the header and got it up and over Graney into the top left corner to tie the game up one a-piece.

Both sides went into the locker room at half-time sharing the spoils and were unable to be separated. Athletic came out the better side and was rewarded in the 55th minute as Ryan Holden made a diving header at the near post to put the Reds into the lead. Fatigue started to kick in as the Reds’ play became more direct and Mailman and Kahl were replaced by Pearce and Hodgkinson.

Levi Hoekstra had plenty of penalty practice last week at the Jim Wishart Secondary Schools Tournament and the young 17-year-old held his nerve in the 86th minute as he calmly slotted his penalty in the 86th minute to make it 3-1 and put the final nail in the coffin. Athletic held on for the remainder of the match as a wave of euphoria went around Wembley Park when the referee put his whistle to his lips to blow full-time and confirm Whanganui Athletic as Federation Cup Champions.

An awesome achievement for the club and the first time in our history that we won the competition. A special credit to goalkeeper Turner who earned himself Man of the Match with a breathtaking performance, keeping Athletic in the game through big saves in big moments. A fitting way to end the season and the club, players and management were extremely proud and relieved to finally reward the fan base that has stayed so loyal throughout the season.