The four Waikato Men's and Women's Cup and Plate finals played over the weekend were all tight, gripping, entertaining affairs. Both men's finals on Saturday ended up with the 'away' teams winning by the odd goal in three, while Sunday's women's finals each went to extra time.

Here's a brief summary of each match. We also have a great selection of images from Shot360 available on our Facebook page.

Melville United Nobs 1-2 Bulk Lines Otorohanga
Waikato Men's Cup Final

Otorohanga completed a league and cup double with a narrow victory over nearest rivals, Melville United Nobs. A goal in each half, from Regan Hesketh and Trent Maguire, edged the southern Waikato side to retain the trophy they also won in 2017. Kieran Frewin's second half goal for Melville was not quite enough to, at the very least, force the match to extra time.

West Hamilton B 1-2 Waikato Unicol Red
Waikato Men's Plate Final

The Unicol club is a serial winner of the Waikato Plate and they kept up this tradition when their 2018 Red team edged past West Hamilton United. Goals from Gary Perry and Jeremy Aitken helped lead the students to victory.

Cambridge 2-3 West Hamilton United - AET (FT: 2-2)
Waikato Women's Cup Final

West Hamilton United have completed a superb local league season with a gripping extra time win over season long rivals, Cambridge. West Hamilton seemed on course for a comfortable win after leading 2-0 at the break thanks to goals from Kyla Butcher and Marie O'Neill inside the first twenty minutes. Cambridge struck back in the second half, however, through Rachel Hill and a late Abby Cook equaliser, before the Hamiltonains wrestled back control when Kerri Gerritts slotted home what would ultimately be teh winning goal.

Matamata Swifts 2-1 NUSC Fiasco - AET (FT: 1-1)
Waikato Women's Plate Final

Matamata came from behind to first level the match against NUSC thanks to a Mary Ontiveros penalty then win it in the first half of extra time through a Renee Graumans' goal. This is the third time in seven years Matamata has lifted the Waikato Plate.

Note on the finals venues: WaiBOP football is aware of the strong feelings generated by the choice of the weekend's finals venues. It is our intention that 2019's venues will be identified before the start of the season so we don't find ourselves in a similar situation to this year. As always, we welcome constructive feedback through the usual channels.