Football: City and Athletic battle hard to draw

Wanganui City's Morgan Rush goes down in a contest with the opposition goalie at Wembley Park. Photos/Sharon Francis

The local league saw plenty of action at the weekend, with Saturday's feature match between the Wanganui City Reserves and the Wanganui Athletic Reserves being intensely fought affair as both teams shared the honours at the final whistle.

Even with City and Athletic being reinforced by their clubs' first-team players recovering from injuries and picking up match fitness, neither side could find their rhythm enough to get ascendancy, leaving the final score at 1-1.

In the other matches on Saturday, Athletic Cosmos thumped Castlecliff United 9-0, meaning United are still struggling to find their first competition points of the season.

Wanganui Collegiate were not able to get over top of the Athletic Weekenders, succumbing 6-3 in a game that featured plenty of scoring action.

The Wanganui City Thirsties put up a valiant effort to keep the Castlecliff St Anthony's to 2-0 after 55 minutes, but as is the case against a lot with local league teams, the final minutes saw the Saints take advantage of tired bodies defending the goal and buried the match at 7-0.

In the Castlecliff derby, the Brave and the St John Castlecliff 1sts battled to a 1-1 draw.

The Marist derby between Casuals and Celtic saw the Casuals take an early lead through a composed finish by Cameron Dale, who beat the Celtics' defensive line, and guided the ball past the keeper.

Dale walked away with a brace of goals for the match, but it was not enough to overcome their first team opponents, who recovered from the early setbacks and ended the match ahead 8-2.

The Marist Bhoys drew with the Wanganui City Renovators 3-3 in the friendly fixture of the day, with the Renovators showing they will be a team to be reckoned with once they have adjusted to the different level of opposition they'll be facing each week.

Wanganui High School International gave the Total Automotive Wanganui City Hammers a shaky start in their fixture, going a goal ahead early on.

The Hammers did settle into their normal game however, and were able to close out the match at 6-2.

WHS certainly did well to contain the Hammers for 90 minutes.

The top of the Wanganui Women's league is seeing a three-way battle emerging between the Wanganui High School and the Wanganui City Women, who are locked even on 13 points, with the Castlecliff Scrappers just two points behind.

The City Women stormed back into the top position in a match that saw Wembley Park echo to the cheers of supporters for the plucky Saints, when Andrea Escobar tied the match up at 1-all for the ladies in blue in the first half.

Ultimately it was not enough and City banked three points with a 5-1 victory.

In the inter-school derby between Wanganui High School and Girls College, the WHS girls managed to finish with top honours and also push themselves to the business end of the table with a hard fought 4-1 victory.

WHS have now announced themselves as contenders for the Women League title, and with both Wanganui City and the Castlecliff Scrappers in the hunt, the Women's League will be heating up in the weeks to come.