2026 Men’s National League – Week 2
Wellington Olympic vs Ferrymead Bays
Never before have Wellington Olympic and Ferrymead Bays played against each other – that’s the beauty of having different teams qualifying for these things. Having said that, they may not have played each other but they have each played at each other’s ground before. Olympic played Coastal Spirit at Ferrymead Park a couple years ago in the Nats, while Ferrymead Bays once made the trip up to Wakefield Park in 2012 for an Inter-Federation Cup (in what turned out to be the only iteration of that competition). Funny how these things work. Wakefield Park was the destination here as each team sought to carry on from positive opening round results. The Greeks made a 10-man comeback win away to AFC Reserves while Ferrymead earned a very commendable 0-0 draw against Eastern Suburbs.
Ben Mata scored in that week one game for Olympic... and that wasn’t all. In between that game and this game, Mata popped over to the Cook Islands where he captained that national side and scored twice in a 3-1 win against Tahiti. Big NZ National League presence in that Cooks team with Auckland United goalkeeper Ine Maro also playing while they were coached by Rhys Ruka, who just led Fencibles United to a Chatham Cup title and has recently announced a switch to Bay Olympic for next season. A few other NZ-based players in that Cook Islands squad... as well as Taci Kumsuz which is a real deep cut for you Wellington Phoenix fans.
To the event at hand, there was one change for Wellington Olympic with Hayden Aish replacing the suspended Tam Dimairo who was red carded last week. One change also for Ferrymead Bays as Daniel Thoms came in for an injured Omar Cameron up top. Otherwise it was steady as she goes in what was a surprisingly open game from the outset. WO’s Gianni Bouzoukis had a shot cleared off the line by Nick Falco (lovely play from Rodwell and Seb Barton-Ginger in the build-up) while Falco’s long throws from FB were instigating danger once again with that Into The Mixer approach. Enjoyable stuff. Then this happened…
You thought the long throws were a direct approach? Doesn’t get any more direct than Scott Basalaj giving it a hoof downfield. Every season he seems to get an assist from one of these, there’s nobody in the National League can tonk a ball further than this fella. And sharp work from Morgan Wellsbury to keep chasing and get a toe on the ball to evade Evan Ovendale and put the Greeks ahead.
That’s the way it stayed into half-time though not without some warnings from Bays. Christopher Murphy and Noa Prestel both had efforts off target while Olympic’s Justin Gulley had came up with a big block late in the spell. Shout out to Chris Murphy, the 39yo from Belfast who did play a little bit for Canterbury United back in the day so he does have prior National League experience (something only a couple of his teammates can claim) – this was game #483 for him with a Ferrymead Bays badge on his jersey.
From the first three halves that Ferrymead Bays have delivered in the National League, they’ve shown themselves to be pretty rugged and compact, not entirely unlike how Coastal Spirit approached this level. But that’s misleading... since this team scored some sizzling goals through the winter season. Well, they scored their first of the Nats at the beginning of the second half when Jacob Killick jumped on the second phase after a cross into the area (open play, not a throw-in, just to be clear) and the finish caught everyone out to level this game up at 1-1. And then bloody hell he did it again, collecting a partially-deflected cross from Prathumphithak with a smart touch on the spin and then slamming it bottom corner to put Bays in front, this one following some liquid transitional attacking footy shifting from side to side at pace. Told ya they can score some sizzlers.
And there in the space of ten minutes the entire thing flipped. Wellington Olympic had to chase it and frustration simmered within a very physical game (Wellsbury in particular was really in the wars). They went close when Gulley whipped one off the crossbar on 80’, part cross part shot no luck. But it just wasn’t quite sticking for the Greeks, with too many passes not quite precise enough and the clinical edge lacking in front of goal. One of those days where the ball seemed to bobble or skid on at the wrong moments.
To be fair, the scoreline last week was exactly the same with ten minutes remaining. Olympic pressed the emergency button by sending Ben Mata up front, as they often do in these situations, and he had one big chance where he didn’t get enough contact on his header. Stoupe also slipped a ball inside for Wellsbury at the near post but it was a tricky finish from that angle and he boosted it off target (and then needed some help stretching his cramp). Again, nothing was sticking… and therefore Ferrymead Bays dug deep and took the 2-1 victory on the road. How about that?
Another excellent defensive performance from Bays where the only concession was a bit of a freak instance (and a mistake from their keeper) and they were able to limit one of the most unlimitable attacks in this competition. They’ve been playing Cashmere Tech all year so they’ve had some preparation in that regard. Nicolas Falco, Luke Pritchard, Chris Murphy, Miles Holder… lots of contributors herein. It was a result that a fully flowing Wellington Olympic probably would not have suffered but one of the main reasons they couldn’t get in a flow was because of how well Bays shut it down. Same as they did to Eastern Suburbs. A pattern is emerging.
Wellington Olympic 1-2 Ferrymead Bays
Goal (Assist)
14’ | 1-0 | WO | Wellsbury (Basalaj)
52’ | 1-1 | FB | Killick
62’ | 1-2 | FB | Killick (Prathumphithak)
Miramar Rangers vs Auckland FC Reserves
Blue and black against blue and black. Miramar Rangers were without the injured Martin Bueno again for this match... but he was only partly absent. Didn’t play but he did take over the sideline coaching duties with Jamie O’Connor presumably suspended after his red card on the bench last week. Can’t confirm if the rest of the staff who were marched in that contentious match in Napier were forced to watch from the balcony at David Farrington or anything but there were two changes to the playing eleven with Josh Brown given the nod in goal and Joe Harris coming in at right-back. Auckland FC lost Aston Burns to injury last game so in came Louis Wicks for his first start while Damion Kim, Sean Kane, and goalkeeper Liam Hill also got rotated in. Miramar coming off a scrappy draw in Napier, AFC coming off a late defeat against Olympic. Both searching for a victory.
One other tweak to the Rangers team occurred between Louis Fenton and Connor Gaul, who swapped around a bit last week between left-wing and striker and that continued into this match with Fenton taking up the centre-forward role... though sadly he only lasted six minutes before clutching at his hamstring and having to be replaced by Adam Hewson. Two minutes later Joe Harris went down with an even worse one, pulling up as he tried to change direction at pace and busting his knee. Spencer Cameron was up in a hurry and with less than ten minutes on the clock, Miramar had already used 2/3 substitute windows. There’d have been panic on the sideline when Owen Smith hit the deck after coming out of a heavy challenge shortly afterwards, fortunately he was able to run that one off. Maybe some bigger shinguards next week, aye?
Initially, this was a game of set pieces, with only a few sparse incidents to break up the routine. One of those was from a Riley Dalziell giveaway at the back for AFC which led to a good diving stop from Hill to push a Gaul shot around the corner. There’d be another attacking incident up the other end when Carlos Ranui’s cross was met by Harley Hill, who got into a great area but didn’t get proper contact on his header. Bit of a weak effort, that, though like most good strikers he only needed a sighter. Skip it until the 27th minute and Hill ripped possession away from Brad Whitworth (in itself a feat) and then drove towards goal, skipping past Lucas Wright and blasting home with his left foot. Two goals in two MNL games for the 18yo, previously of Hamilton Wanderers. He scored five goals for the NZ U19s recently. Nine of them during the National League. This young brother just keeps scoring.
Miramar Rangers were only behind for a few breaths until Connor Gaul curled one directly in from a corner kick. However that didn’t last because after a huddle from the officials, it was decided by committee that goalkeeper Hill had been impeded. Goal disallowed. AFC grew in confidence with that lead behind them. James Mitchell was setting a nice tone from the back. Harley Hill brought in the impetus up top. And who knows what might’ve happened if they’d only lasted a few seconds longer and taken the lead into half-time. Alas, Connor Gaul stuck a crossfield ball towards the left wing where Lewis Thompson was charging forward. Great first touch and an even better finish across the keeper and inside the far post. Equaliser just before the break and those hypothetical coaching speeches were torn to shreds and redrafted.
Miramar began to apply the clamps from there... leading to a deserved goal for Connor Gaul when he headed in via the crossbar from a fine Spencer Cameron delivery. That’s how it’s done. The home side did have to deal with a third injury issue when Whitworth went off with a knock but they were ahead now and knew how to manage things. Almost extended that lead when Cameron tried to get a touch back stick off another Gaul inswinging corner. Same bloke wasn’t far off with a low driven strike later on. Turns out they didn’t need a third goal. Rangers very pragmatic after taking the lead, not about to cough up anything like they did for the first goal... and AFC didn’t have the finesse (or brute force) to break them down otherwise. Louis Wicks and Lucca Lim both had decent attempts from distance in the latter stages and Hill shanked a bouncer wide as he tried to lift it over Brown in goal near the very end. That was as close as they got.
A narrow win for Miramar was about as expected. Connor Gaul led the way in the absence of top scorer Martin Bueno and while they did get a bit boring after taking the lead, gotta be fair to them because they did lose three players to injury and therefore didn’t have access to any more substitutions. Didn’t have the head coach in the dugout either. Nah, that was a really solid win under the circumstances, one which should set Miramar up nicely to for this National League campaign.
By the way, Birkenhead United had the bye this round so you know what they did instead? They hosted Auckland FC’s A-League team for a preseason fixture. They doubled it up as an AFC Fan Day with face-painting and inflatables and a sausage sizzle. Over 2000 people turned up at Shepherds Park, with the ALM trophy on display, to see Auckland FC win 1-0 thanks to an Isa Prins goal off a Van Fitzharris corner kick. The goal was scored in the second half. From the photos, it looked like a line-up of:
Knowles; Sakai, Wynne, Vicelich, De Vries; Brimmer, Gallego; Fitzharris, Brook, Cartwright; Cosgrove
Prins obviously featured off the bench as did Daniel Normann, while Marley Leuluai is also pictured having played (very well) for the Reserves last week in National League. A-League begins in two weeks so we’ll see if any of the spare fellas end up getting minutes for the Reserves once they get into a normal matchday rhtyhm.
Miramar Rangers 2-1 Auckland FC Reserves
27’ | 0-1 | AFC | Hill
45+4’ | 1-1 | MR | Thompson (Gaul)
58’ | 2-1 | MR | Gaul (Cameron)
Eastern Suburbs vs Auckland City
Got the rare morning kickoff over here at Madills Farm, perfect backdrop for the Sunday dog-walkers of Kohimarama. The Gridlock Derby as they like to call it. This fixture pitted the defensive firewall that is Eastern Suburbs (coming off a 0-0 draw away to Ferrymead Bays) and the defending MNL champions and perennial trophy hunters Auckland City (who had a bye first up). No Matt Ellis for ACFC because he’s gone straight into an A-League contract with Perth Glory. In his place, they’ve signed six-cap Somalian international winger Bilal Habib from Green Gully in Melbourne. Goalkeeper Louie Caunter has also come across from East Coast Bays to reinforce the GK department, returning to the Navy Blues after a decade away. Wasn’t a fantastic Northern League from ACFC but they always seem to come good for the Nats.
Caunter went straight in as starting goalie for the Navy Blues while Habib would feature off the bench. Eastern Suburbs made two changes after failing to find a breakthrough down south vs Ferrymead: Noah Billingsley at wing-back and Lucas Abarca in midfield. It was Billingsley who had a shot on target within a minute of the starting whistle, with Suburbs making a point of getting those wing-backs really high and pushing 5v4 against the City backline – that chance came from a deep cross that met Billingsley unmarked as the free man. Therefore City did their best to double up with their wingers and fullbacks for those wide overloads and the predicted tactical battle ensued from there.
No shockers about that, nor about the high quantity of fouls that we were treated to, but it was a shock that this (eventually) turned out to be a game full of goals. Would have predicted a craftier contest decided by small margins but nah the Czechian forwards for ACFC weren’t having that, with Pavel Osmančík breaking it open after a sneaky short assist from Michal Doudera after 26 minutes. Granted, the rest of the goals would have to wait until half-time because first we had to endure another conflagration of fouls and chippiness.
Okay then, let us fast-forward to the good stuff. 53 minutes gone and Dylan Manickum played a slick one-two with Doudera before lifting the ball across to his opposite winger Ryan Watson whose header went in via a deflection to deceive Jack de Groot with the gloves. Ten minutes later, Eastern Suburbs picked up the pace on one of their regular forays up the wing and Hector Echague collected a cross from Jake Mechell and slammed onto the crossbar and over the line. A further ten minutes and let’s just say the fouls (and injury breaks) had not ceased... but the spectators finally benefitted from one of them when Michal Doudera scored directly from a wonderful curling free kick from wide on the right.
Seemed to be ten minute intervals where the dust settled and goals were scored. Eastern Suburbs gave themselves hope when Tino Contratti headed home on 83’ to make it 3-2, getting on the end of a Mick Reid cross in a rare instance where Christian Gray and Nathan Rostron didn’t appear to be a step ahead in defence for ACFC. But ten minutes after that (deep into added time by then), along came Fergus Gillion. Teed up by Mike den Heijer claiming a contested ball and then drawing the last defender before passing to Gills. Carrying on the family tradition of Gillions scoring for this club in National League. And that’s all folks.
Honestly, there must have been at least thirty free kicks in this game, it was ridiculous (and not the ref’s fault either – a foul is a foul, gotta blow the whistle no matter how many there happen to have been before it). Turned it into a very gruelling affair... from which Auckland City had more moments of clarity in the shape of four goals. Incredible because that’s only the third time all season that the Lilywhites have conceded more than once in a game – the others being a 2-1 loss to Birko in Northern League and a 2-0 extra time loss to Melville in the Chatham Cup. And here they shipped four all at once... that’s usually about six weeks’ worth for this team. Keep that in mind if you were thinking of underestimating Auckland City, none of whose four separate scorers played for this team in last year’s edition when they won the championship. In fact, the only two starters in common between the 2025 grand final and the 2026 opener were Mario Ilich and Christian Gray. There’ll be others pop back up soon but coach Rudy Mozr has certainly refreshed this squad.
Eastern Suburbs 2-4 Auckland City
26’ | 0-1 | AC | Osmančík (Doudera)
53’ | 0-2 | AC | Watson (Manickum)
63’ | 1-2 | ES | Echague (Mechell)
74’ | 1-3 | AC | Doudera
83’ | 2-3 | ES | Contratti (Reid)
90+4’ | 2-4 | AC | Gillion (Den Heijer)
Auckland United vs Napier City Rovers
Napier City Rovers saw a whole lot of red cards pointed in their direction in the draw against Miramar but the consolation is that most of them were for staff members. So the team bus may still have been light a few soldiers but only striker Jacob Fenton was actually missed from the playing crew... and that was balanced out by the return of Liam Schofield in midfield. Caleb Hunt also came into the eleven. Auckland United made quite a few alterations after failing to find a way through the WeeNix defences last time – Ine Maro was rested for Freddie Martin in goal following international duty with the Cook Islands midweek plus Tiahn Manuel was fit to take his usual spot in midfield while Oli Fay and Matt Conroy earned starts after busy bench cameos last time. Logan Phipps in central defence too. That was five changes from week one to week two.
Same as last week, Napier City Rovers scored early through Sam Lack. Not quite as quick as last week but seven and a half minutes was close enough. Fine ball infield from Schofield and Lack whipped out the double shimmy turn before burying his shot...
All was going pretty smoothly for Napier City at that stage, right? Yeah so... that would not continue. Will Tønning may have made an excellent save from a Jack Beer free kick (the Danish goalie celebrating his recently announced contract with Vanuatu United for next year’s OFC Pro League) but Auckland United soon levelled up when Will Mendoza whipped out the chest-and-volley lurking on the edge of the box from a corner kick. Mendoza also scored in week one and this one was a ripper. As was the second he scored after another corner kick situation. Bit closer this time after Conroy kept the play alive in the box. Third one was a bit different, capitalising after Oli Fay had run in behind and taken the goalkeeper out of the picture. Jack Albertini almost saved the day but Mendoza was there to go bang.
And yet just moments earlier, Rovers had almost equalised when Leo Brown took a pop in a crowded penalty area only for Oliver Campbell to block that thing on the line. It wasn’t a one-sided game... AUFC had been more dominant against the WeeNix despite not even winning that one. But a couple of slack set piece situations allowed Auckland United to take over and you know what? It should have been worse after an inadvertent handball by Liam Schofield, turning his back on a Julian Barrios Cristales shot, gave AUFC a penalty in 1H stoppages. Will Mendoza fancied a fourth only for his attempt to be saved by Tønning.
But Tønning didn’t save the stretching touch from Barrios three minutes into the second spell, reaching onto an Oli Fay square ball that somehow wasn’t intercepted and that was four. Credit to Rovers for continuing to seek goals... but they got too loose with it, or maybe their heart wasn’t in the chase with the big deficit, and that left space to exploit going back the other way. As Jack Beer did to score the fifth for AUFC. That was bad enough but then, after Rovers subbed off a few key players (including captain Jim Hoyle who suffered a head knock), Auckland United ran it up with two more late ones. Jack Beer got his second in a very similar manner to his first, collecting a ball out wide on the left and then angling into the box for a shot. Then Will Mendoza bagged his fourth with a dinked finish after Jedd White had set him up.
And with that an Auckland Utd side that struggled to break down the WeeNix defence in round one had put seven past a Napier City Rovers backline which only conceded 15 times in 18 games during their Central League championship. And that weirdness grows when you see what that WeeNix defence got up to on the same Sunday afternoon because this wasn’t even the biggest win of the round. Will Mendoza was the hero, scoring four times with an assist on a stunning afternoon for him... aside from the missed penalty. Excellent again from Jack Beer this time operating in a false nine kinda role. The 7-1 scoreline was a bit flattering due to Napier City’s uncharacteristic blips, the win absolutely was not. One of these teams was prepared and proactive and one was not, pretty much. And guess what? Napier hosts Cashmere Technical next week.
Auckland United 7-1 Napier City Rovers
8’ | 0-1 | NCR | Lack (Schofield)
16’ | 1-1 | AU | Mendoza
23’ | 2-1 | AU | Mendoza
34’ | 3-1 | AU | Mendoza
48’ | 4-1 | AU | Barrios (Fay)
64’ | 5-1 | AU | Beer (Mendoza)
90+4’ | 6-1 | AU | Beer (Izumi)
90+5’ | 7-1 | AU | Mendoza (White)
Cashmere Technical vs Wellington Phoenix Reserves
The biggest win of the 2025 Men’s National League season was Western Suburbs beating Coastal Spirit by an 8-0 scoreline. Wellington Olympic have also had a couple of 7-1 wins in recent years (vs Christchurch Utd in 2022 and vs Napier City in 2023). Auckland United won 7-1 against Napier City during this very same round. Women’s NL is a different story, the presence of Central Football often attested to that, but during the five years of this particular format for the men, those were the biggest winning margins we’d seen... until now.
Cashmere Technical 10-0 Wellington Phoenix Reserves. Now that’s a hiding. Tech were 5-0 up after only 29 minutes at Garrick Park so it was a fortunate thing the scoreline wasn’t any worse than that. Based on the research available, it would appear this was the biggest victory in a men’s tier one NZ Football league since Auckland City won 10-0 against Southern United in February 2013. Bit of a rude awakening for the Phoenix Reserves, especially with the revamped National League next year when they can look forward to challenges like this on a far more regular basis. However, before you lump rotten fruit at the player development in Wellington, know that there were mitigating circumstances (and also know that making drastic judgements after one game is always a silly errand).
The Wellington Phoenix have been battling on multiple fronts lately. Chris Greenacre’s trying to whip his team into shape for the A-League in two weeks yet while that’s going on he’s had Alex Rufer, Henry Gray, and Bill Tuiloma called up for an extended All Whites window while Isaac Hughes, Riley Bidois, and Jayden Smith are currently injured and a couple others (James McGarry and Rafael Duran were specified) are working back from injuries themselves. That’s why the club felt the need to put a contextual write-up on their website about their latest preseason defeat... even though preseason results are entirely irrelevant. But in that piece, it’s pointed out that Dylan Gardiner played ninety minutes in central defence in a 5-3 loss to Newcastle Jets (paired with Lukas Kelly-Heald) while Luke Mitchell played the entire second half. Nathan Walker scored twice with Kazuki Nagasawa getting the other.
That has ramifications down into the Reserves where Ryan Lee, for the second week in a row, had to deputise at CB instead of his favoured left-back position. Couple other changes after they somehow scraped a 1-1 draw out of their match with Auckland United last week despite being under the pump for the majority. Those were Zach Cashmore in up front alongside Jack Clegg, Ben Trenberth into the attacking midfield, and Joe McIntyre into central mids. National League debut for Cashmore who is the son of All Black Adrian Cashmore. ZC made four bench appearances during Central League after featuring at the Oceania U16s earlier this year alongside Clegg and Trenberth (and several others from the wider Nix Academy). The ages of the starting eleven for this game: 17; 19, 19, 19, 18; 20, 17; 18, 16; 16, 16.
Since this was such a blowover, let’s simply recap the goals which will tell you all you need to know about how this all went down...
1-0 (1’): Long thrown from Lyle Matthysen gave Garbhan Coughlan something to run onto and the Irishman opened the scoring after only thirty seconds.
2-0 (4’): Coughlan drifted wide right and ran at the retreating fullback, then lifted a lovely cross towards the middle where Matthysen expertly guided a header into the net (and they’d been lucky not to concede in between those goals with Hayden Thomas clearing one off the line after they’d lost possession in their own defensive area).
3-0 (13’): The WeeNix again didn’t win a clean header from a long ball, allowing Yuya Taguchi to pick up the scraps and feed Garbhan Coughlan... who glided past two defenders with some sumptuous skill and then buried his shot into the bottom corner.
4-0 (26’): Coughlan won a free kick thirty-odd metres out (for which McIntyre was booked) and Matthysen curled that thing into the box with his left boot to where Finn Caughey powered home a header.
5-0 (29’): Caughey ripped the ball free from Thomas in the midfield and then Garbhan Coughlan completed his hatty inside of half an hour with a top corner finish from outside the box. One touch to control, one to set it up, one to shoot... all done at walking pace with no close-out.
6-0 (45+3’): Thomas tripped on the ball, Caughey took it away from him and fed an overlapping Lyle Matthysen who took a touch and did the rest.
7-0 (52’): Yuya Taguchi finally got one after Coughlan collected a deflected cut-back from Caughey around the penalty spot, back to goal, and unselfishly slid it into the path of Taguchi back post for the tap-in.
8-0 (59’): Short corner between Taguchi and Matthysen with the latter driving a low cross towards the near post run of Coughlan who touched in his fourth of the afternoon.
9-0 (61’): Aftermath of another corner kick, where Taguchi flipped a square pass to Lachlan McIsaac, who’d only just been subbed on, and his first-time driven effort fizzed into the bottom corner from twenty metres, past an unsighted Joe Chalabi in goal.
10-0 (87’): Mercifully, they subbed Coughlan off for the last twenty and things eased off from there, though Finn Caughey did find time to slam a dropping volley home from another corner kick situation. Should never have that much time in the box after a set piece but damn that was the sweetest strike of the lot.
Funny thing about it is that this WeeNix team was quite good defensively during Central League, as they had been last week in putting up a wall of resistance against AUFC. It’s the goal-scoring that’s been their drastic issue while they embed a bunch of new players in those positions (like Clegg, Trenberth, Cashmore, etc.). Bit easier to defend stoically when you’ve got something to protect though... as opposed to being two goals down after four minutes with the knowledge that your team only scored multiple times in a game on 3/18 occasions during the regional phase.
There was a pretty obvious weakness in that their centre-backs (one of whom isn’t even a natural centre-back) weren’t even challenging for those first phase headers whenever Cashmere Tech went long. And you can tie that into the other obvious mismatch that came from the WeeNix, with five starters aged 17 or under, trying to deal with the imposing strength of Cashmere. The lack of marking/close attention for several of those goals was glaring, though in fairness Coughlan is as good at wriggling out of those spots as anyone. And Tech are ruthless – they put four past Birko last week, after all. A win like this was like being back in the Southern League again... they beat Wānaka 11-0 and 9-0 in their meetings this year so the WeeNix won’t be alone at the Victims of Coughlan club meetings. They can commiserate against Birko net round.
The Phoenix Reserves did make one early sub with Willem des Tombe on for Phil Azevedo midway through the first half – must have been injury related, since the tactical problems were much deeper in the formation than Azevedo. George Fullelove came on at the half in a switch to a back three. Curious to see Oliver Grosso get some minutes off the bench too – the NZ U19s international left the Nix Academy to join Christchurch United but with them not in the National League he’s apparently come back, at least for the next couple months.
Righto, so Cashy Tech have scored 14 goals without concession through the first two weeks. The only team that have beaten them in any context this season, Nomads United (in the English Cup) and Fencibles United (in the Chatham Cup final) are not in this National League. The WeeNix win was more than routine but they proved their credentials in smoking the Northern League champs a week ago. Things did ease off between the ninth and tenth goals but for a full hour they were absolutely ruthless and the entire way they never slacked off defensively despite the margin. In Garbhan Coughlan (six goals already) they have arguably the best player in the competition. Absolutely no reason why Tech cannot win the whole thing... which would be something special considering there hasn’t been a South Island team win this league or any of its predecessors since Christchurch United won the National Soccer League in 1991.
Garbhan Coughlan got four goals and two assists here. Lyle Matthysen got two goals and three assists. Finn Caughey, from midfield, added two goals and two assists. There was a goal and two assists for Yuya Taguchi. And somehow the other bloke in the front four, Zander Edwards, played ninety minutes without getting any of either. He did score last week though. Coughlan has six goals overall while Matthysen has five assists overall, each zooming into huge leads in those counts. Don’t overlook goalkeeper Pieter-Taco Bierema either who is yet to concede thanks to two straight clean sheets.
Cashmere Technical 10-0 Wellington Phoenix Reserves
1’ | 1-0 | CT | Coughlan (Matthysen)
4’ | 2-0 | CT | Matthysen (Coughlan)
13’ | 3-0 | CT | Coughlan (Taguchi)
26’ | 4-0 | CT | Caughey (Matthysen)
29’ | 5-0 | CT | Coughlan (Caughey)
45+3’ | 6-0 | CT | Matthysen (Caughey)
52’ | 7-0 | CT | Taguchi (Coughlan)
59’ | 8-0 | CT | Coughlan (Matthysen)
61’ | 9-0 | CT | McIsaac (Taguchi)
87’ | 10-0 | CT | Caughey
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cashmere Technical | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 14 | 6 |
| Auckland United | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 4 |
| Miramar Rangers | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Ferrymead Bays | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Auckland City | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Wellington Olympic | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 3 |
| Eastern Suburbs | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | -2 | 1 |
| Napier City Rovers | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | -6 | 1 |
| Wellington Phoenix | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 | -10 | 1 |
| Auckland FC | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -2 | 0 |
| Birkenhead United | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | -4 | 0 |
| TOP SCORERS | ||
|---|---|---|
| Garbhan Coughlan | Cashmere Technical | 6 |
| Will Mendoza | Auckland United | 5 |
| Yuya Taguchi | Cashmere Technical | 2 |
| Harley Hill | Auckland FC | 2 |
| Sam Lack | Napier City Rovers | 2 |
| Lyle Matthysen | Cashmere Technical | 2 |
| Finn Caughey | Cashmere Technical | 2 |
| Jack Beer | Auckland United | 2 |
| Jacob Killick | Ferrymead Bays | 2 |
| MOST ASSISTS | ||
|---|---|---|
| Lyle Matthysen | Cashmere Technical | 5 |
| Garbhan Coughlan | Cashmere Technical | 2 |
| Yuya Taguchi | Cashmere Technical | 2 |
| Finn Caughey | Cashmere Technical | 2 |
Week 3 Fixtures
Eastern Suburbs – BYE
Wellington Phoenix Reserves vs Birkenhead United
Auckland City vs Wellington Olympic
Ferrymead Bays vs Miramar Rangers
Auckland FC Reserves vs Auckland United
Napier City Rovers vs Cashmere Technical
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