Napier City Rovers and Petone have claimed the last remaining places in this year’s Men’s National League.
Both won their final games in this season’s Central League to finish third and fourth, respectively, claiming the last qualifying places in the 10-team national competition, which starts in late September.
Rovers beat North Wellington 3-1 while Petone came from behind to beat Stop Out 2-1.
Main photo: Petone players … heading to the National League. Photo credit: Petone FC.
The results ended hopes of Western Suburbs and their supporters who needed a last day win against champions Wellington Olympic, and for other results to go their way, to qualify.
Instead, they lost 8-3 to Olympic.
2023 Men’s National League
The 10 clubs to qualify for the 2023 competition are:
Auckland City (1st, Northern League)
Eastern Suburbs (2nd, Northern League)
Auckland United (3rd, Northern League)
Manurewa (4th, Northern League)
Wellington Olympic (1st, Central League)
Wellington Phoenix Reserves (2nd, Central League)
Napier City Rovers (3rd, Central League)
Petone (4th, Central League)
Christchurch United (1st, Southern League)
Cashmere Technical (2nd, Southern League)
Results
Games played on Saturday September 2, 2023
North Wellington 1 (Ahmad Mohammadi 34′)
Napier City Rovers 3 (Stefan Karajovanovic 64′, Deri Corfe 72′, Alex Mort 80′)
Miramar Rangers 0
Wellington Phoenix Reserves 4 (Ben Wallace 2′, Josh Tollervey 66′, 71′, 77′)
Petone 2 (Kieran McMinn 58′, Matthew Brazier 79′)
Stop Out 1 (Jared Cunniff 30′)
Wellington Olympic 8 (Gavin Hoy 8′, 17′, 75′, Ben Mata 22′ pen, Kailan Gould 31′, Jack-Henry Sinclair 53′, 74′, Joseph Hopper 84′)
Western Suburbs 3 (Muse Abrahaberhe 29′, 65′, 90+2′)
Whanganui Athletic 1 (Jordan Joblin-Hall 52′)
Waterside Karori 6 (Leonardo Villa 7′, 85′, Seth Ward 31′, Tomas Alvarado 40′, 60′, Oliver Stanish 68′)
