Wanganui City's Max Davidson looks to fire in a cross kick during his team's big win over Hokowhitu FC at Wembley Park today.
The sinner returned a saint as a quartet of goals by Zane Robinson set up a convincing 4-1 victory for Versatile Wanganui City to get their first 2019 trot in the winner's circle of Lotto Federation League at Wembley Park today.
Facing a Hokowhitu FC side who tried too many individual bursts and struggled to contain City's pace and excellent passing chains amongst a rejigged midfield and wing, City could have been up by four goals at halftime if the tip of the spear had not been so blunt in front of goal.
Several shots were pushed wide as Jordan Joblin-Hall, Kyle Graham-Luke and Max Davidson dominated proceedings, while co-coach Anthony Bell took his pace over to the new position of wing.
That swap saw Robinson, just back from his red card suspension, moved into the striker position and the decision came up gold in the third quarter of the match as Hokowhitu tried to push forward but continued their raft of turnovers.
City then just fired the ball forward to Robinson, who made the visitors pay by beating the sole defender on the left side of the park while having the right touch to pop the ball into both far corners for a second half hat-trick.
Those goals followed City's sole goal of the opening stanza when after several promising attacks weren't finished off, Robinson caught Hokowhitu napping on a quickly taken free kick to finally open their account.
City would not have been happy to give up a breakaway goal to Hokowhitu not long before halftime to create a very deceptive 1-1 stalemate.
Discipline was also an issue at times with Robinson, Davidson and Jack Jonas among others picking up a yellow card for hard challenges.
Bell was nonetheless pleased his side lifted the tempo again, as Hokowhitu had probably their best period of sustained pressure in the opening 5-7 minutes of the second half, before the weight of defensive turnovers told against them as Davidson and Joblin-Hall set Robinson loose.
"Just a bit of fight in that second half," Bell said.
Hokowhitu were further hamstrung when one of their players fell hard on the far wing with a suspected broken ankle, necessitating a long break before the beginning of the second half for an ambulance to be called and take him away from the field.
City's superior co-ordination was clear from the outset, but they were just not finishing.
Graham-Luke set up a header by Robinson that cleared the goal keeper but hit the middle of the crossbar, while Joblin-Hall came into the top of the box, only for his left-footed shot to drift wide right.
A foul on the hard-running Bell set up a free kick, as Davidson and Robinson rushed to the ball with Hokowhitu's other defenders slow to rush back, and Robinson fired from left to right to beat the keeper and open his account.
At the other end, the visitors upped their urgency but not accuracy as a corner kick was batted away and the corresponding strike from in front sailed well over the bar.
Robinson then put Bell in the clear right in front of the Hokowhitu goal, only for the winger to be brought down right before taking his shot.
Out of nowhere, a long Hokowhitu clearance gave Aaron Toki a rare chance as he cleared his falling defender and pushed the ball away from the keeper for the equaliser.
Still with the weight of territory and possession, City immediately wanted to strike back, as Bell sent a cross pass to his fellow co-coach Latham Berry, who likewise pushed his shot wide.
After the delay to remove their injured player, Hokowhitu nearly struck first in the second half as they got a free kick and chipped it into City's goal mouth, with the goalie unable take it clean, but the attacker's followup strike just cannoned into a team mate.
City's accuracy on goal was improved and it was only two outstanding diving saves from the Hokowhitu keeper which prevented Joblin-Hall and Graham-Luke getting their names on the goal sheet.
But Hokowhitu had forgotten about Robinson, as the freshly-minted forward latched onto a long midfield pass from Joblin-Hall to run around the last defender and show the patience to get close before just putting a lovely little chip into the upper left hand corner of the net for 2-1.
Only minutes later, the City attackers trapped Hokowhitu in front and stifled their clearances, letting Robinson get the pass on the other side of the box and shoot right to left for a bottom corner net.
Tiring, Hokowhitu began to park the bus as the midfielders were wary of leaving their defenders isolated again, as Joblin-Hall had another strike that went over the top.
But after a short while, they lapsed again as Davidson produced a great turnover to fire another long pass to Robinson, with the defenders crying out for offside, but play continued and the red hot striker again beat the last man, while this time pulling the keeper towards him before pushing the ball from the left hand side into the far right corner.
Satisfied with their goal differential, while also running on their substitutes as Robinson departed to enthusiastic applause, City played most of the remaining minutes in their half – forcing turnovers and clearing the ball for a disheartened Hokowhitu to keep trying to come back at them.