Central League Playoff for 2008

Central League Playoff for 2008

The playoff for promotion to the 2008 Central League will be the winner of a home-and-away series between Redsox Manawatu and Petone. The two top teams from the Pacific Premiership, Maycenvale United and Napier Marist both won their repsective semi-finals against the two best Western Premiership teams, Palmerston North End and Redsox Manawatu (with Marist going on to win the final 2-1), however both Marist and Maycenvale  have decided they don't want to chase Central League promotion, leaving ther door open for Redsox Manawatu (having won the playoff for 3rd and 4th place) to play Petone. After this playoff, the winner will play Team Taranaki in another home-and-away series for promotion. Confusing? Just a bit... and why would the two top clubs from the central north island not want to be in the top league? money? Well Marist have the likes of Hawkes Bay United players Jimmy Cudd and Mitch O'Brien lining up for them so that seems unlikely. Maycenvale were reportedly also competing for Cudd's signature for very generous amounts of money too, which ironically, was O'Brien's club last season. thebats12007-08-27 18:02:00

WHEN do Redsox play Petone?

This weekend 1st leg at Memorial Park (Palmy) and next weekend 2nd leg at Memorial Park (Petone)

Who will win?

 

PETONE -  will be to strong all round the park.  3-1 down here, draw in Palmerston.

Good luck to Petone. Lets try get a good crown down as a sort of warm up to the Jets game. Maybe have a game v's Jets fans before hand on number 4

I would imagine it would be quite an expense for central League clubs away from Wellington to be travelling just about every other weekend. 

What ground will Saturday's game be at? Any idea?

Memorial in Palmerston North, 2.00pm Kick Off, Get there and cheer on Petone.

Petone won 4-1 away in the first leg  Great effort. I'd give a match analysis but I wasn't there. We clearly out played them and finished our chances. Good team effort. Lets make to 4-0 next week.

Anyone at the game? Match report please

In windy and cold conditions Petone never looked like losing this match. The nearest Red Sox's came was when they scored with about 25 minutes to go to make the score 3-1 but a  player rushing to get the ball out of the Petone goal, to get the match restarted  use a bit of force and was sent off.Petone had to much class all round the park and should have won by more.2-0 up at half-time I was surprize the flood gates never opened  in the 2nd half. Red Sox keeper made a few good saves but they were never really in this match. ChopperHarris2007-09-03 12:11:31

Cheers Chopper. Good effort. I'll be there this week.

Does anyone know when/if the last remaining CL game (Wests v Taranaki) will be played? Would be a good warm up for Taranaki before petone. I heard their player coach will be away for the relegation games also, if so the players would like that, he was a rather disruptive influence on them according to the guy I talked to on the weekend. Could be that Taranaki will not be easy beats for Petone after all.

Is the game between Taranaki and (probably) Petone a one-off or is it over two legs?

2 legs, hm and away

Petone to win it 5-1 on aggregate.

Petone have, barring a disaster on Saturday, 3 games left. 24 games in the season (18 league, 4 play-off, 2 Chatham Cup). Good effort that. Wests may have played about that many too.

Yeah-I think its the only fair way to do it though.  Its a big jump to CL and the play-off games test teams out to see if they can hack it.  Stop Out have been there for a couple of seasons now and have fought well to survive.  The difference between S/O and Petone is that Petone already has a good infrastructure and great facilities, hope they do well.

Taranaki still playing Wests on sat 2.30. Then presentation of league trophy. Get along and watch the champs play.

3-0 to Petone making it 7-1 on aggregate. Could have been 6 or 7. We managed to miss one from approx 1 meter out plus a few other chance that went begging.