Promotion/Relegation Play-off Final
Valentine FC v West Wallsend SFC
Magic Park, Saturday 2pm
Valentine FC coach Cas Wright says a victory in this Saturday’s Promotion/Relegation Play-off Final against West Wallsend SFC means everything to her club and the playing group as they battle to remain in the NPL competition for 2026.
The Phoenix finished 11th on the ladder this season to join three Northern League One sides in the three-week series, and they got the job done against Singleton Strikers FC with two clean sheets across both legs to prevail 2-0 on aggregate.
Cooper Wilmott and Nicholas Martinelli strikes in the second half of last Saturday’s second leg at Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility put them through to the final, and they are now eager to begin their build towards a more successful future as an NPL club when the final whistle sounds this Saturday.
“The NPL is the highest competition in Northern NSW. It is a privilege to play in it, and we don’t take that privilege lightly,” Wright said.
“It’s an important game for us this weekend. It’s the start of a rebuilding block. We will rebuild and go again. We want to be sustainable for the next 10 years, rather than keep facing relegation on a continual cycle.
“Credit to our boys. They’ve turned up every week this year and put in 110%, both mentally and physically. For that, we’ve continued to compete.
“You only have to look at our games against Broadmeadow, Edgeworth and Weston; the top three. All of those games were competitive apart from one. The other five, we’ve taken it to the top teams in the competition.
“We were stoked to get the win against Singleton with multiple players out in both legs and finishing with 10 men in both games. It was a pretty resounding result.
“When we are in form, we can play a very good style of football, so now it’s about taking that and putting it on the field on Saturday.”
Valentine are well aware that they will be facing a hungry West Wallsend outfit that are seeking a return to the top flight for the first time since 2012.
The Bluebells were relegated that year after finishing last, as were Valentine a year later in 2013. But while the Phoenix had returned to the competition by 2015 and have stayed up ever since, West Wallsend have remained in the Northern League One competition for 13 long years.
Their skipper Bryson Cox said that the top flight was where their club and its players aspired to be.
He and his teammates were disappointed that they did not push for the premiership and automatic promotion this year following a third-place finish, but this Saturday’s clash is a chance to rectify that and show their true potential.
“It’s been really up and down for us this year, and we were kind of disappointed with our season,” Cox said.
“We planned to come out and win the comp, but it didn’t pan out that way.
“Losing Matty Paul early was a huge loss, then we were affected by injuries and holidays and the rest. We had five or six draws back-to-back at one stage, and we just couldn’t find any luck.
“We also had 12 penalties and scored less than half of them.
“Towards the end of the season, we’ve really been coming back. It’s been really internally driven because the pressure started coming for Bailey (coach, Bailey Cox) from the outside, but it had nothing to do with the effort that he was putting in. Every week we’re set up with the right tactics that we should be able to execute.
“We had a bit of a crisis meeting where we said we wanted to do it for him and each other. We were still only fifth then, but we just expect more from ourselves. It’s been upwards since.”
West Wallsend were part of the promotion/relegation play-off series last season but were beaten by NPL outfit Adamstown Rosebud FC in extra time of the second leg.
Cox said he and his teammates had learned plenty from that defeat that they will take into Saturday’s fixture.
“This weekend, if we aim up and play with the enthusiasm we did against Toronto, we’re going to be very hard to beat,” Cox said.
“Against Adamstown last year, we showed them too much respect in the first leg and we didn’t back ourselves. We went after them in the second leg and we were unlucky in the end. This year against Valo, we’ll be going at them right from the start.
“We’re a fitter side now than we were last year. We’ve worked hard on that. I personally went off with a cramp in the last minutes of that second leg, and I won’t be letting that happen again this year.”
