Kim Maguire was the star of the show for Hamilton Wanderers on Sunday. Photo / Grant Stantiall
Kim Maguire was the star of the show for Hamilton Wanderers on Sunday. Photo / Grant Stantiall
Hamilton Wanderers premier women's team has moved within a hair's breadth of second place in the LottoNRFL Premier League, after picking up a 3-1 win over Auckland side Western Springs.
On Sunday coach Stephen Cox was forced into making squad changes with Briana Rose, Shae Brady and Georgia Candy allout of the squad. Grace Cox and Kim Maguire returned to the starting line-up while Sophie Daly made her first start of the season.
Wanderers were coming from a 5-0 Hamilton derby win against Claudelands FC on Wednesday and picked up where they left off, scoring twice in five against Western Springs.
Kelli Brown, who has been in good form for Wanderers, was able to pick out Maguire who made no mistakes to give Wanderers the lead.
Brown then added her own name to the score sheet, latching on to a pin-point pass and scoring her sixth goal of the season and currently Wanderers top goal scorer.
Western Springs were not deflated by an early two goal deficit and pulled one back before half time with a long-range free kick from Bernadette Goulding.
In the second half the game became a scrappy affair with Western Springs searching for an equaliser, but Maguire was on hand again to put the game to bed, volleying the ball from five metres out into the roof of the net.
The win keeps Wanderers in third and three points above Forrest Hill Milford AFC thanks to their loss to Three Kings United.
Claudelands Rovers women's team also picked up their first point of the season against Papakura FC. Despite going a goal down early, Summer Gunn was able to level the game for them with the reds holding out for a 1-1 draw.
In the men's league, Melville United were the big winners on the day.
Away to Waiheke United, it was former Melville hitman Marc Evans that gave Waiheke the lead early on in the game.
That would be the only goal Waiheke would score though as Jama Boss scored a goal on either side of half time to give Melville a crucial win in their hunt for promotion.
In the premier league Hamilton Wanderers was defeated by Manukau United in a 4-3 thriller. After going 3-0 down Wanderers pulled the game back to 3-3 before Manukau scored a winner in the later stages of the second half.
In division two Claudlands men's side's promotion push was put on hold with a 1-0 defeat to Onehunga Mangere United.
