Cameron Hussey, right, challenges for the ball in City's win over Massey Celtic on Saturday.
Photos by Sharon Francis.
Cameron Hussey, right, challenges for the ball in City's win over Massey Celtic on Saturday.
Photos by Sharon Francis.
It can be described as the most subdued victory of The Big Orange Wanganui City 1sts season, as their 5-3 win over Massey Celtic at the university grounds was not enough to grab the Horizons Premiership at the last gasp on Saturday.
Eight minutes down the road, the Palmerston NorthBoys High squad could not lift against Hokowhitu FC Rangers, who won 4-0 and therefore claimed the title by a solitary competition point.
League seasons are marathons, not sprints, and City felt the fatigue after they were building an almost unassailable lead in the first round with a long winning streak and big scorelines.
However, the defection of key young players to PN Marist's Central League team plus the midseason injuries and suspension of their other stars saw City stumble, dropping three matches, while Hokowhitu hit a purple patch with an unbeaten eight-game run and some monster scorelines right when it counted.
"They were more consistent," said City coach Kelvin Francis.
"Good on them, I rang their coach and offered our congratulations.
"It's been a good season. Brought some younger players through and created a pretty good team environment."
On Saturday, City initially struggled to put Massey away on the smaller university field, not having the usual width to get in behind the defenders, while there was a "bizarre" sandy patch around 3m in size at the 18 yard box.
"The boys were saying the ball was sticking on the pitch," said Francis.
Desperate for the win, around 4-5 players were giving out instructions, some of them contradictory, which led to poor decision making.
Massey scored from two penalty kicks and a field goal, with the score 1-1 at halftime.
Simon Petersen challenges for the ball.
The contact was hard and fast, as Josh Jonas discovered after he limped off following a hard knee vs knee challenge.
However, City got the better of the second half shoot out as franchise player Anthony Bell followed up his first half goal with three more in the space of 15 minutes, while Latham Berry also added his name to the sheet.
Even then, the quartet of goals, which made six in two games, was still not enough for Bell to receive the golden boot for the Premiership as the two other leading contenders also regularly found the back of the net in matches played elsewhere.
"Anthony finished one behind Nicholas Carrick [Rangers] and the young Feilding guy, Michael Lewis [both 20 goals], but Anthony played three less games than them," said Francis.
While Bell rightly picked up the three MVP points for his goals, Cameron Hussey had probably his best game of the season on the right wing, while veteran Dan Aplin was again one of the best.
"He's really enjoyed himself back playing travelling football and I think we've secured his services for next season," said Francis.
Having been training twice a week since the end of January, City will enjoy a break this Saturday before gearing up for the last hurrah of the season - defending the Charity Cup in the derby clash with Devon Homes Wanganui Athletic.
