Wellington Olympic didn’t get their best case scenario with those other results but a win against the WeeNix would at least keep them in with a mathematical chance of defending their 2023 championship

You know it’s going to be a good game when the bouncy castle is up. Western Springs hosted Cashmere Technical in the second game of a club double-header, their WNL side having earlier beaten Central 6-0…

It’s been a tricky campaign for Western Springs, dealing with a few too many injuries amidst what was already something of a rebuilding season, and that’s been reflected in a lot of close games delivering merely a single victory

Big time footy over here. Wellington United suffered their first loss last week and more dropped points this week would take them out of the running for top two... and their opponents were Auckland United who haven’t lost a game all year

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon at Linfield Park... ripe for some footy. Coastal Spirit have been a surprise package this year, continuing their magnificent year of achievements by nestling into a final contention in the Nats

David Ball was left out of the Wellington Phoenix’s A-League squad for the trip to Perth this weekend and Giancarlo Italiano said the reason for that was to get him some minutes for the reserves. Instead of Perth he got to go to Auckland’s North Shore

Someone may have forgotten to alert the groundskeepers about the weekday footy because four minutes into the match they had to hit the pause button when the automated sprinklers went on. Look, we’ve all been there.

Ah yes, the Southern Derby. Logan Park in Dunedin was the venue. For years the Canterbury United dynasty owned this league with Southern hovering around the very bottom of the table and the results reflected that chasm. But in recent years the results have flipped.

At the beginning of this round, Western Suburbs were last with comfortably the worst defence while Auckland City were first with the equal-best defence. Winless versus undefeated.

Heading into this international window, the All Whites had a rare opportunity. They’d managed to bag a 1-1 draw against the USA in their previous match and now they had two immensely winnable fixtures on the calendar

Wellington Olympic vs Eastern Suburbs shaped to be a doozy but not like Auckland City vs Cashmere Technical at Kiwitea Street. Auckland City had been far from flawless but they don’t need to be flawless in order to win games, they usually find a way.

Central Football were back at the lovely Massey University field for week three, having already lost 5-0 at this scene against West Coast Rangers and then having their week two trip to Dunedin postponed due to the extreme weather.

A Mediterranean Derby in only the second round of matches? We sure are spoiled. Wellington Olympic hosted this one at Martin Luckie Park having been blanked by Coastal Spirit in a week one draw