Football: City progress with emphatic victory

City captain James Satherly contests the ball against Inglewood's Nic Reive.

Wanganui City have made it through to the third round of the Federation Cup after beating Inglewood 6-0 at Wembley Park yesterday afternoon.

The comfortable scoreline didn't reflect the intensity to the match, as Inglewood came to Wembley showing the desire to keep City from progressing.

Yet it took only 20 minutes for City to stamp their authority on the match - scoring three quick goals through Carl Bond, Jamie Lambie and captain James Satherly.

Being so far behind at that point would have rattled a lesser team, but Inglewood stuck in there and kept City locked in the midfield for the remainder of the half.

Inglewood had plenty of opportunities to get themselves on the scoresheet, mostly from poor judgment in the City defence, forcing keeper Jason Fergusson into some spectacular saves to keep his goal from being breached.

"We just needed to keep controlling the game, and make sure we don't let them back in," said coach Kelvin Francis about his message at halftime.

Jake Lockett was brought on to inject a bit more pace up front and provide some more attacking options.

Ultimately picked by Francis as the man of the match, Bond dictated terms in the midfield, often becoming the lynchpin for City's transition between defence and attack, while also spoiling any potential attacking phase Inglewood were trying to build.

He combined well with Chris Annabell in the midfield.

Inglewood came out in the second half the more attacking side however, while a yellow card for City's Adrian Ngaao just outside the penalty area gave them their best opportunity early in the second half from a free kick.

The shot went for the back post, only to have Fergusson parry away for a second Inglewood strike, which Annabell cleared with a header.

Left back Tom Dixon attracted the ire of local referee Phil Walker and earned a yellow for a reckless tackle, which could place City in a predicament in coming weeks as their yellow card tally is already starting to creep up this season.

After 30 minutes on defence against waves of attack, City flipped the switch with Annabell taking advantage of Inglewood's high playing line to break free on halfway, making no mistake as he was left one-on-one with the keeper.

That opened the floodgates with 10 minutes left, as Satherly broke down the left-hand side and delivered a low cross for Jake Lockett to make it 5-0.

Lockett featured moments later, as he also broke from halfway and cleared the outstretched arm of the Inglewood keeper to coolly slot an open goal.

"[Inglewood] really stifled us in the second half, but we finished stronger," said Francis.

"We didn't know much about them, and you never take much from where a team sits on the [Taranaki Premiership] table.

"I'd put them up there with the top half of the Western Premiership teams we face."

Focus shifts to the weekend Western Premiership fixture with Palmerston North Marist 3rds, who started the season poorly but have made a small surge from the foot of the table.