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A Timaru football team has become the first side from outside Dunedin to claim the Southern Premier League title.
Northern Hearts AFC wrapped up the league last month with a 4-2 win in their final match of the season against Old Boys AFC in Invercargill.
While the side had gone unbeaten for a large majority of the season, a shaky run of results at the back-end meant it came down to the final match to seal the competition crown.
In the end Hearts finished the campaign five points ahead of runners up Mosgiel AFC — recording 11 wins, three losses and two draws from their 16 matches.
Individuals in the side were also rewarded with top prizes at the recent Southern Football Awards with Kowin Hancock receiving the Golden Boot (top goalscorer), Bailey Chambers being named the Attacker of the Year and Ryan Hanifin the Coach of the Year.
Hearts also received the Team of the Year and SPL Fair Play awards.
Club president and goalkeeper Matt Chambers said it was great to win the league after initially setting a goal of a top four finish.
“It’s been a bit of a turnaround. The way we had finished the last few seasons, we thought top four would be a good thing to push for but to finish top is certainly a good achievement.
“This was our fifth season in the league and after maybe three seasons we were aiming for top four but we always have a big turnover of players. We lose four of five each season so it always feels like you are rebuilding each year.
“I think our best finish was in our first season when we finished seventh out of 10 so to turn it around and now be top, it’s a good feeling.”
He said a change of training venue and bringing in some young but experienced players played a big part in the team’s success this season.
“We had always trained on a three-quarter pitch with one goal and a pop-up goal but we managed to do a deal with the rugby union here and train on their number two [pitch] all season.
“We also managed to pick up a few former Timaru boys who had played for Mosgiel the last few years. It was good to get them back with that experience and that gave us a little bit of extra quality and everything sort of clicked.”
Chambers said it was great for the side to pick up some individual awards on top of the team’s overall success.
“I think it all just flows into one, there’s no real egos in our team, we all get along.
“I’m the well-oldest in the side by a long way but we have a lot of laughs and there’s not too much niggle which you do get in some of the other teams that we know about.
“To get those individual trophies is certainly an added bonus and really just icing on the top for season and for those players that fully deserved them.”
He said despite already losing a few players, the side would be looking to defend their title next season.
“We’ve lost a couple that have already gone overseas, so it will just be filling those spots and going again.
“The [Southern Premier] league will be changing a bit because the league above us, the South Island League, has folded for next season so three top sides from that will be dropping down.
“It certainly makes it a lot harder of a league but I think the boys will be up for the challenge again.”