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Both Devon Homes Wanganui Athletic and Wanganui City had clear victories in Palmerston North on the weekend, as Athletic put down Palmerston North Marist Reserves 5-0 while City went 7-0 over Red Sox Manawatu Rovers.
On a beautifully presented Memorial Park, the big wide pitch allowed Wanganui Athletic a chance to play their free flowing attacking style of football in their Lotto Federation League fixture.
Athletic had made the short trip to Manawatu with a depleted squad, with several players still carrying injuries or illnesses, making this match up a lot more challenging than the men in red would have hoped.
They had to call on fringe players like Zeb Small and Kelvin Hove to fill their roster, with even club veteran Shane Wye making an appearance off the bench.
"It's not a great time at the moment. We have so many out," said player-coach Troy Smith.
The scoring for Athletic was opened early by Troy Smith from a James Oxtoby corner, when the ball was put high and lost in the sun by the Marist keeper - falling fortunately to Smith to put it away.
Smith added another to his account not long after with Oxtoby again playing the role of the provider - placing the ball over the keeper to take the score to 2-0, where it remained at halftime.
After missing a gilt-edged opportunity early, 16-year-old Jordan Gilmore redeemed himself later in the match, bagging himself a brace of well-taken goals.
His first effort was a beautiful strike after collecting a loose ball, which he placed inside the top right corner, while his second was a typical goal-poacher's score, toe-poking the ball into the net from a goal mouth scramble.
Liam Robertson closed out the scoring, taking advantage of a poorly set defensive wall, leaving the Marist keeper out of position and giving Robertson the opportunity to put the ball in the back of the net with a left foot finish.
"We come home with three points and five goals which is all positive from our side," said Smith, showing that he was ultimately happy with the team's performance.
While the score was impressive, the Reds were still looking a little messy on the attack, not quite finding the fluidity of play they are aiming for.
The performance got them the points they needed, but with Team Taranaki clearly the measure of the league this year, they will need to find some impetus in attack and defence if they are to really to challenge for the lead and make a play for Central League honours in 2015.
Athletic will now prepare to host the Jeff Gleave Fielding United 1sts at Wembley Park this weekend.
Wanganui City also walked away with the maximum points on Saturday when they faced off against the Red Sox Manawatu Rovers at Skoglund Park.
Typically a poorly presented pitch, it was still quite mushy underfoot, meaning City had to work much harder to perform their normal style of play.
With last weekend's slow performance still hanging over their heads, coach Kelvin Francis reminded his charges they simply needed to get back to playing easier football, and not to worry too much about the cute stuff.
The message seemed to sink in, with Jamie Lambe opening his account in just the fourth minute.
This was to be the first of a hat-trick of goals for Lambe, who also scored in the 39th and 61st minutes.
Chris Annabell, who was selected by Francis as man of the match, again put in a massive shift in both attack and defence, keeping the City team focused on decisively winning the fixture, being rewarded with a goal in the 37th minute.
On being pushed forward for his first corner this season, Dylan Howells bagged himself a well-taken goal, much to the appreciation of his teammates.
Howells has been a rock at the back of City's line all season, and the reward of getting on the scoresheet is surely one that will teammates will be hearing about for seasons to come.
It's easy to see how Howells has earned the nickname "Horse" with his Clydesdale-type work ethic in the defensive line, again pairing with Adrian Ngaau to effectively keep the opposition out of the game.
City captain James Satherly also featured on the scoresheet, netting himself a brace with goals at both ends of the second half.
"When we kept the ball on the ground, we really opened them up and got in behind their defence," said Francis.
"But when we put ourselves under pressure, we couldn't execute.
"But I'm happy, we got the three points, and they executed the game plan.
"They [Red Sox] had definitely improved from the last time we met them."
City now look ahead to this Saturday with another trip back to Skoglund Park to take on second place Hokowhitu.