KEY POINTS:
There will be no places for faint hearts at Fred Taylor Park on Saturday as old adversaries Waitakere United and Auckland City go head-to-head for mid-season New Zealand Football Championship supremacy.
Waitakere, who have yet to beat City in either O-League or NZFC contests, showed they may never
be better prepared to break that duck with a record-breaking 9-1 romp over hapless Canterbury United at English Park yesterday.
Like City a day earlier, Waitakere stormed home to score their eighth win of the season, taking their goal tally to an impressive 30 from 10 matches.
Auckland, ahead 1-0 over lowly Otago at halftime at the Croatian Cultural Society's ground after new signing Salesh Kumar had turned and scored at the near post after the visitor's defence had failed to clear a 21st-minute corner, lifted their game after the break with Grant Young leading the way.
He made it 2-0 after 70 minutes and watched as fellow striker Chad Coombes completed the victory five minutes later.
Six second-half goals, including seconds for Jason Hayne and Benjamin Totori which took the Solomon Islander to top equal with City's Bryan Little in the golden boot race, gave Waitakere their second victory at English Park this season following their earlier 3-1 win.
Allan Pearce, who made it 9-0 in the 89th minute, notched his sixth of the season to join Waikato's Robert Gill on six for the season, one behind the joint leaders.
In the last five games, Chris Milicich-coached Waitakere have scored 21 goals and given up two. In the same period, Colin Tuaa's Auckland City have scored 12 and again conceded just two.
The feeling at English Park after yesterday's game, however, remained that City are still regarded as the better of the Auckland teams.
Canterbury, who conceded a late first-half goal to United captain Danny Hay who had made a late call to interrupt his South Island holiday to play, played the last 23 minutes a man short after captain Bill Robertson was sent off for a second yellow card.
Team Wellington kept themselves in championship contention with their 2-0 home win over Waikato FC in sweltering conditions at Newtown Park.
After almost an hour with no goals, Wellington scored two in as many minutes with Steve Gully and Raf de Gregorio on the scoresheet.
YoungHeart Manawatu's woes continued when they were beaten 3-1 by Hawkes Bay United.
Manawatu ended the match one short after Prince Quansah was sent off by referee Neil Fox for a second yellow card for back-chatting.