Jamie Lambe had a great game in Wanganui City's 4-2 win at Wembley Park on Saturday. PHOTO/LEWIS GARDNER
Jamie Lambe had a great game in Wanganui City's 4-2 win at Wembley Park on Saturday. PHOTO/LEWIS GARDNER
Coach Kelvin Francis was beaming after his Wanganui City side walked away victors on Saturday.
Not only had his team put on a stellar showing on the park against Levin AFC to run out 4-2 winners, but they had secured the Western Premiership title after putting themselves well out ofreach of the chasing pack with a 10-point buffer between themselves and Hokowhitu with one round to play.
It wasn't the greatest of starts for the soon-to-be crowned champions, with Levin hungry for points right from the off and quickly getting a two-goal lead to put City in a position they'd never been in all season.
Through the 18 games that have been played, Francis' squad had never gone behind on the scoresheet, let alone been put in the position to chase a two-goal deficit.
But it didn't take long for City to find their rhythm and start to control the match, and put on a performance worthy of the title of champions.
Through hard work, and beautiful quick passing, and possession-based play they were able to bring back the deficit and be level at 2-2 going into the halftime break.
The message at halftime was simple.
Francis said that he asked his charges to relax and continue playing the style that had seen them claw back two goals, then do more of the same for the final 45 minutes. City came out in the second half with a renewed vigour, and with just one half separating them from the title, the team clicked and stepped the game up to another level.
Another two goals were put past the Levin keeper, who got a mention from Francis as being the opposition's man of the match in his eyes, to send the blue collar boys to a 4-2 victory at the final whistle.
Jamie Lambe, who showed he had learned the lessons from previous weeks and was determined not to sit on the bench again, bagged a brace of goals, while Chris Annabell and James Dorgan also contributed to the tally with a single goal each.
The victory capped off a spectacular season for City, and has given the club a good hope of being able to take a strong squad of well-developed youth players as well as core of matured leadership into the Federation League in 2015.
This weekend sees City travel to Skoglund to play the Takaro Titanz in their final match of the regular season.
