This weekend Coastal Spirit will start their Chatham Cup campaign against Waimakariri United at Kendall Park.

The 2021 Chatham Cup (known as the ISPS Handa Chatham Cup for sponsorship reasons) is New Zealand's 94th annual knockout football competition.

The competition returns for 2021 after being cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19. It will have a preliminary round and four rounds proper before quarter-finals, semi-finals, and a final.

Current holders - Napier City Rovers

As a club Coastal Spirit has been involved in some very exciting Cup fixtures in its short history. The most successful year was in 2011, where the club was the most advanced out of the Mainland teams. The round 5 match against Caversham was a 10 goal thriller, losing 6-4 on a memorable day in Dunedin.

We last played Waimak in the Chatham Cup in 2018 Round two winning 5-0 at Cuthberts Green, but the team will be anticipating a tougher day at the office, away at Kendall Park against a team which has improved in the last few years. They currently sit top of the table in the Championship league, hoping to be involved in a playoff later in the season to decide a place in next seasons Southern League.

The Coastal squad has some great additions in 2021 and are hoping that it can start the Cup campaign well in Kaiapoi this weekend. There is one person in the Coastal set up who has some experience in Chatham Cup runs, Paul Hughes (manager) who won it with Dunedin Technical in 1999.

Game: Round 1 vs Waimakiri United

Kickoff: 2pm

Location: Kendall Park , Kaiapoi (map below)