Football: WaiBOP fall to first defeat at hands of playoff rivals

Macey Fraser scoring the opening goal for Canterbury United Pride against WaiBOP Loaded on Sunday. PHOTO/ENZO GIORDANI.

Loaded WaiBOP have fallen to their first defeat of the season - suffering a hefty result at the hands of their playoff rivals.

Canterbury United Pride made a huge statement of intent with a dominant 6-1 win over WaiBOP at John Kerkhof Park Cambridge today. Sitting in fourth heading into the weekend's matches, Canterbury - the 2013 and 2014 champions, underlined their title credentials with a clinical performance over the home side.

With a strong breeze at their backs, the visitors controlled large parts of the first half and after an enterprising start opened the scoring in the 16th minute when they countered quickly and worked an excellent two on one against the WaiBOP defence which Macy Fraser finished off clinically.

Four minutes later it was 2-0 after Aimee Phillips slid the ball home neatly to underline the visitors' early superiority.

WaiBOP eased themselves back into the game, but too often the balls forward lacked enough purpose and quality to put Canterbury's keeper, Victoria Esson, under pressure.

Loaded WaiBOP fell to their first defeat of the season at the hands of their playoff rivals Canterbury United Pride today. PHOTO/SUPPLIED.

Four goals flew in at the start of the second of the second half as WaiBOP briefly got themselves back into the game before the visitors took complete control.

Leah Gubb's deft chip pulled WaiBOP to within a goal of Canterbury, before Phillips restored the visitor's two goal advantage. A double strike from Holly Pascoe either side of the 55th minute had Canterbury out of site inside the hour.

With Football Fern Annalie Longo pulling the strings, Canterbury underlined both their pre-match favouritism for both this game and their likelihood of another serious tilt at the title.

Rebecca Lake struck from a corner late on to complete an excellent trip north for Canterbury and a chastening afternoon for and under strength WaiBOP side.

-More to come.

Result:

Loaded WaiBOP: 1 (Gubb 49')
Canterbury United Pride: 6 (Fraser 16, Phillips 20', 50', Pascoe 54', 56', Lake 82').
(ht: 0-2)

Line-ups:

WAI: Wilshier, Murrihy (Williams 68'), Reid, Foster (Golding 68'), Ryan, Talbot (Rawnsley 58'), Krystman (Courtney-Tennent 82'), Gubb, Robinson, Cawte, Elliott (Rhein 73').

CAN: Esson, Clarke (Thomas 87'), Lake, Jones, Phillips (Roberts 80'), Bray (Rennie 59'), Longo, Hepburn, Ward, Pascoe (Herman-Watt 87'), Fraser (Williams 68').