Sunday, 31 August, 2pm, and the final round of matches in the Lotto Northern Premier Women's League kick off. Attention is focused on two of them, with reigning champions Auckland United needing a point at Fencibles United to be certain of becoming just the fourth club to win three successive titles in the 53-season history of Premier Women's League football. Meanwhile, West Coast Rangers, the only team which can prevent their cross-town rivals from joining Eastern Suburbs, Mt. Wellington and Lynn-Avon United in that elite group of back-to-back-to-back title winners, have to win at Madills Farm against a "Lilywhites" team on a ten-match winning streak. The odds heavily favour the reigning champions, but in football, there is always the prospect of the unlikely eventuating, as Grimsby Town proved during the week … 2.02pm - the first goal of the afternoon finds the net, and it's at Stanmore Bay Reserve where the first celebrations are experienced. An Aneka Mittendorff long-range thunderbolt has given relegated Hibiscus Coast the lead against Ellerslie, who came into this match on a wretched run - just two points from their last six games. Relegation form. Come the final whistle, it was two points from their last seven for "The Ponies", with "The Coasters" bowing out of the Premier League on a winning note, 1-0 the final score, a bittersweet triumph for the league's northernmost side, whose relegation means that for the first time since 2000, there won't be a team from north of the Harbour Bridge competing in the best league in the country when it kicks off again in 2026. 2.06pm - Hello! Hello! Hello! What's all this, then? An early goal in one of our featured matches, as "Fencies" captain Rosie Missen rifles a twenty yard free-kick into the wind and the bottom far corner of the net at Riverhills Park to give her team the lead over Auckland. Game on! 2.15pm - Auckland are working their way back into things, but the wind is making life challenging for both teams, a situation which, I'm sure, is being experienced at the other venues this afternoon. One can imagine the difficulties both teams are enduring at the open expanses of Madills Farm - little wonder there's been radio silence on the goalscoring front there so far. 2.22pm - Parity is restored at Riverhills. A driving run out of defence by Talisha Green sees her feed Zoe Benson, who whips in a wicked wind-assisted shot which Caelan Tremain does well to parry. Chloe Knott is following in, however, and almost over-runs it. But she takes a difficult chance well - 1-1. As things stand, the "three-peat" is on. 2.33pm - It's still on, but now there's no room for error, because Sienna Higinbotham has given Rangers the lead at Suburbs - they're now level on points with Auckland, who lead the live table on goal difference. 2.45pm - Right on the stroke of half-time at our four venues, the only one yet to witness a goal finally does so. Liz Savage gives Western Springs the lead against Tauranga Moana, who will be doing their level best to avoid conceding too many today, given they began the game just six goals shy of conceding a ton for the season, a feat last "achieved" in 2014 by Bay of Plenty. Peep Peep! Half-time whistles blow across the Lotto Northern Premier Women's League for the final time this season, and Hibiscus Coast, Western Springs and West Coast Rangers are each a goal to the good, while it's 1-1 twixt Fencibles and Auckland, although only just, Hannah Mitchell pulling off a fine save to thwart Hayley Miller as the interval looms. The league table hasn't changed since kick-off, but will that still be the case in an hour's time? ... 3.01pm - Back under way across the isthmus, and Rangers are back under way with a bang - 2-0, Laney Strachan doubling their lead straight from the kick-off, and threatening to conclude Suburbs' ten-match winning streak by doing so … 3.03pm - Hold that thought! It's now 2-1 at Madills, Ella Findlay dragging "The Lilywhites" back into the contest. There's more to come in this one, particularly with the weaponry the visitors can call upon off the bench. 3.14pm - Rangers coach Andrew Clay turns to a couple of potential match-winners for Rangers, with Emily Lyon marking her return from injury and the league's leading markswoman, Shannon Henson, both entering the fray for the final thirty minutes of the league campaign.

3.26pm - Tauranga cop another Savage blow at Seddon - it's 2-0 to "The Hoops", thanks to their former Football Fern, who has scored 81 goals locally in a career which has seen her represent Lynn-Avon United, Glenfield Rovers, Northern Rovers and Western Springs, not forgetting her spells abroad at Perth Glory, Ottawa Fury and Adelaide United. 3.30pm - Last season's Golden Boot winner is going back-to-back in 2025. Henson surely seals the deal at "The Farm" as the former Auckland United striker puts Rangers 3-1 up with her nineteenth goal of the season, and 48th in three seasons since making NZ her home. Drama at Riverhills, too, where Mitchell paws a deflected Missen shot out of the top corner, following an uncleared Louise Turley corner. Seconds later, she has another go, this time from the other side of the pitch, into the wind … 3.31pm - "Bang Bang!" Mikaela Bangalan blows the title race wide open with a close-range finish to put "Fencies" 2-1 up over the reigning champions, who, as things stand, are now in second place. It's up for grabs now … 3.34pm - Tiana Hill makes it 3-0 to Springs at Seddon, as Auckland chase an equaliser at Riverhills, with Tremain thwarting attempts by Alexis Cook and Jess Philpot. 3.39pm - Sienna Makwana comes off the bench to bag Springs' fourth, leaving Tauranga very much in the nervous nineties - that's the 98th goal they've conceded in the league this season. 3.45pm - Make that 99, as Nanami Omasa ensures "The Hoops" go nap in their final game of the winter campaign. They've still got the National Women's League to look forward to, as have Eastern Suburbs, West Coast Rangers and Auckland United, who have thrown new signing Kelli Brown into the mix in the final few minutes in their pursuit of a second equaliser. But Fencibles have the wind at their backs, and fancy a third goal. Mitchell's not having a bar of it, however, denying Charlize Kerr and Turley in the dying minutes - and there's plenty of them being played out east. Meanwhile, the final whistle has sounded elsewhere. Coast finished on a winning note, while Tauranga avoided conceding the ton - just! 5-0 to "The Hoops" at Seddon Fields. Meanwhile, Suburbs' winning run is over, Rangers prevailing 3-1. But are they the champions? 3.55 - The final whistle is blown at Riverhills Park, and within moments, there is pandemonium across town as news of Fencibles' 2-1 defeat of Auckland is confirmed, and new Lotto Northern Premier Women's League champions start celebrating their unlikely triumph. The trophy's not on site, however. Not yet, at least. League management are plotting the route from Riverhills to Madills on the GPS, and after weaving a passage through wind and rain, eventually arrive to hand over the silverware to Marissa Porteous and her West Coast Rangers team-mates. Cue joyous scenes, which coach Andrew Clay has experienced a few times before. This is a special win for this women's football stalwart, as he becomes the first coach in NPWL history to win the league with three different clubs. Not only that, but those wins have been achieved across three decades - with Three Kings United in 2007, with Glenfield Rovers in 2018, and now with West Coast Rangers in 2025, without question the most dramatic success of them all. And so the curtain comes down on the 2025 Lotto Northern Premier Women's League season, one which had plenty of twists and turns along the way, right up to the very last whistle of the campaign. The annual league awards revelations won't be too far away, but before then, North Harbour Stadium plays host to the Delivereasy Kate Sheppard Cup Final, with Auckland taking on Wellington Phoenix from 4pm on Sunday. Details: Eastern Suburbs 1 (E. Findlay (48)), West Coast Rangers 3 (S. Higinbotham (33), L. Strachan (46), S. Henson (75))  HT 0-1 Fencibles United 2 (R. Missen (6), M. Bangalan (76)), Auckland United 1 (C. Knott (22))  HT 1-1 Hibiscus Coast 1 (A. Mittendorff (2)), Ellerslie 0  HT 1-0 Western Springs 5 (L. Savage (45, 71), T. Hill (79), S. Makwana (84), N. Omasa (90)), Tauranga Moana 0  HT 1-0