Dan Timmins moved up from the Reserves side to open the floodgates for Athletic's 9-1 demolition of Ricoh at Wembley Park on Saturday.
Fancy footwork in the mud and a dominant overall performance.
Devon Homes Wanganui Athletic are humming as they head into a period of key Lotto Federation League matches over the next three weeks.
A remarkable five goals in 14 minutes from Ryan Holden and a hat-trick to Oliver Carter helped Athletic demolish Ricoh PN Marist 9-1 at Wembley Park on Saturday.
Coach Jason King rated it as one of their best performances of the season, especially given the soggy pitch conditions.
"Certainly one of the best performances," he said.
"I think it accentuates our performance when they drop off a little bit as the game went on, they only had the one sub. But we kept going."
Heavy rain over the past few weeks has left Wembley Park heavy underfoot in patches and players were having to deal with a ball that was either holding up or skidding on.
Athletic adjusted much more quickly than the visitors and managed to put on an attractive 90 minutes of football.
Dan Timmins, up from the Reserves side, opened the scoring in the 23rd minute when winger Jude Hiri - who had a big hand in proceedings with a number of fleet-footed assists - took the ball to the byline, shuffled past his defender and laid the ball back for Timmins to fire home.
Carter then got the first of his three goals using his heel to flick on a shot from Holden into the back of the net. Carter added another when Timmins set him up on the edge of the box, allowing him to curl in past the Marist keeper for a 3-0 halftime lead.
Marist never lookedin it and unfortunately for them Athletic had six second-half goals in them.
Shortly after the break Hiri dazzled down the left flank again and put the ball high into the box for Carter to come flying through to connect with and bag his hat-trick.
Then a masterstroke from King, shifting Holden from the middle of the park to up front, set Athletic off.
In a stunning end to the game Holden scored in the 72nd, 75th, 79th, and 83rd and 86th minutes with classic striker's goals.
The only disappointment was in the middle of the carnage Marist were able to spoil the clean sheet with a free kick that evaded the Athletic wall and keeper.
King said the pleasing performance set his side up nicely for the next few weeks.
"Everybody out there knew what their job was and got out there and did it," he said.
"It's important as we go to Havelock next week that we be ready to have these sort of wins and play that sort of football. So yeah, probably one of the best I've seen."
Athletic adapted to the conditions well, he said.
"We knew it was going to be a bit heavy, we just knew the ball was going to skid. It wasn't going to do the same as on a beautiful dry day so we just needed to be smarter and I think we were the smarter team on the day."
Holden's five goals after moving up front was no surprise to coach King.
"With someone like Ryan he does a lot of work in the midfield which goes unnoticed but he does have a turn of pace."
All three Reserves players who made the step up slotted in seamlessly.
"It's been a good story for us this season that any of our reserves have been able to step into the first team and they don't look out of place and it's worked really well," King said.
Meanwhile, Big Orange Wanganui City 1sts will be happy enough with their 5-1 win over Marist Development in the Horizons Premiership but coach Kelvin Francis said the margin should have been bigger.
"I think probably a little disappointed that we didn't finish more of our opportunities," he said.
"I think in the last 30 minutes we just became a bit lax.
"We scored in the 10th and then the 11th of the second half and then we were just trying to be cute instead of being ruthless."
"But we played some really nice football in trying conditions, in patches . Enough to say we're really looking forward to next week now."
City have a top-of-the-table match away to Hokowhitu Rangers FC next week, one that will go a long way to deciding the title.
Cameron Hussey, Dan Aplin and Anthony Bell scored first half goals while Latham Berry and Max Davidson added two in the second spell.
"When you play a team that gives you a lot of time on the ball, you don't play to your full potential because you're not being pressed," Francis said.
"But can't be too disappointed with 5-1, shared the goals around, played some good football in patches. So we're still creating those opportunities which is fine."
GVCA Wanganui Athletic Reserves away match with Levin AFC was called of due to weather.