Football PHOTO/FILE
More than just another three points for Wanganui City in the Western Premiership on Saturday against the Takaro Titanz - it was by far their best performance to date as they continued their unbeaten run with a 5-0 win.
It was the usual poor Skoglund Park pitch that welcomed City as they made the short hop to Palmerston North, looking for another victory on their way to securing the league title this season.
Takaro were not going to let City have the points easily though, as they came out in their usual physical fashion, looking to muscle their way to a win against a City side who have shown one of the more attractive styles of football in the league.
City went ahead first through a Chris Annabell strike, before a Takaro central defender agriculturally brought Annabell down during open play and escaped the attention of the referee.
With the exchange of a few choice words between the two, it was clear the Takaro defender had more in store for the visitors.
Not long afterwards, Luke Lambe was brutally brought down inside the penalty area, again by the same central defender, finally forcing the referee to issue him a caution and award City a penalty, which Annabell coolly put past the Takaro keeper.
The attacking pairing of Luke and Jamie Lambe proved to be on song again this week, with Luke Lambe skilfully dancing his way past two players in the Takaro penalty area and slotting the ball past the keeper's near post for a 3-0 lead at the halftime break.
City coach Kelvin Francis reminded his team of the need to keep a cool head in the second half with such a fiery encounter on hand, knowing that poor discipline could lead to one of the teams playing with men sitting on the sideline.
Francis' words couldn't have been truer, as within a minute of the second half resuming, the same Takaro defender, who was already sitting on a yellow card, hacked down Jamie Lambe from behind, earning himself a second yellow and leaving the game.
Being a man down seemed to remind Takaro of the task they had at hand, and they started to move the ball and play some football. Their determination to get themselves back into the game created a scoring opportunity not long after, which could have got them back into the game if it wasn't for a clear-headed reaction save by Jason Fergusson to deny the home side their opportunity.
Jake Lockett got himself on the scoresheet again, after replacing James Satherly at halftime, who is working his way back to match fitness.
And Lockett soon used his pace to get in behind the Takaro defence and put the ball in the back of the net.
Dylan Howells continued his excellent run of form for the season, with another solid performance in the midfield defence.
The Lambe brothers had a torrid time on attack during the second half, as they were repeatedly caught offside while trying to make runs in behind the defence line.
Francis was forced into making an unplanned substitution with 20 minutes to go, bringing himself on at right back to play out the dying minutes of the match.
The coach turned deft provider moments later, when he himself was faced with a opportunity on goal, which was parried by the keeper onto the waiting foot of Luke Lambe, giving him a brace for the match.
"It was an interesting match. We had a pretty average second half, but I'm relatively happy," said Francis.
"We kept trying to put players in behind, they were offering up lots of space by playing a high defensive line, but we just couldn't exploit it."
City now get the weekend to rest their bruised bodies, with most football postponed as the Football United tour culminates in Wellington this Saturday, with a massive double-header event seeing the Wellington Phoenix and Sydney FC from the A-League play the EPL's Newcastle United and West Ham respectively.