The 1981 Chatham Cup was the 54th annual nationwide knockout football competition in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. Early stages of the competition were run in three regions (northern, central, and southern), with the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

teams receiving a bye until the Fourth Round of the competition. In all, 124 teams took part in the competition. Note: Different sources give different numberings for the rounds of the competition: some start round one with the beginning of the regional qualifications; others start numbering from the first national knock-out stage. The former numbering scheme is used in this article. The major talking-point of the 1981 competition was the giant-killing run of Stop Out, who caused upsets against the higher-ranked

Nelson United Nelson United was a New Zealand soccer club, based in the South Island city of Nelson. Their home ground was Guppy Park. The team was founded in 1968 through the amalgamation of Nelson Thistle (founded 1924) and Nelson Rangers (founded 1950 ...

Miramar Rangers Miramar Rangers AFC is an amateur New Zealand association football club in the Wellington suburb of Miramar. The club is one of the most successful in New Zealand having won the Chatham Cup four times and the National League title twice. Over t ...

and

Wellington Diamond United Wellington United AFC is an association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand, that competes in the Central League. History Wellington Diamond United Wellington Diamond United was the result of the merger of Diamond and Zealandia/Well ...

on their way to the semi-finals. p. 78

The 1981 final

The final was a repeat of the 1980 final, but this time it was Dunedin City that finished victorious - the first win for any team from that southern city since

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. An early goal from a Billy McClure penalty put the Mount into the lead, but a brace of well-taken goals by Michael Glubb, complemented by a late strike from Terry Wilson were enough to take the cup south.

Results

Third Round

* Won on penalties by Papakura City (8-7)

Fourth Round

* Won on penalties by Christchurch Rangers (5-4)

Fifth Round

* North Shore United won 5–4 on penalties.

Quarter-finals

* Stop Out won 4–2 on penalties.

Semi-finals

Final

References

Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation New Zealand 1981 page
{{Chatham Cup seasons Chatham Cup

Chatham Cup The Chatham Cup is New Zealand's premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout tournament in men's association football. It is held annually, with the final contested in September. The current champions of the Chatham Cup are 2022 winners Auck ...

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