"Personally, felt we had their measure this time," coach Jason King said.
"They seemed to be a little off the pace of where you'd expect them to be."
Athletic were still wary of what player-coach Adam Cowan and expat Whanganui player Josh Smith could put together, even though Marist were using their Reserve team goalie and giving a couple of other young players from their second team a run.
The visitors were able to mount some pressure with good attacks, and then unvielded a secret weapon of their own.
Only playing the first half so he could get to Wellington to watch the All Blacks vs Springboks test, regular fullback Jordan Candish was pushed further up field.
King said Candish was the key man in both first half goals, "much to the disbelief of his clubmates".
Candish took corner kick for this team, which fell perfectly for Will King to go up and find the timing he has been searching for all season with his headers, getting under the cross bar instead of over.
"Great to have Will finally get one in the right spot."
Athletic followed up, with the ball coming in and out of Marist's box, and Candish had a chance to make a good strike, which often in the past would go sailing over the goalmouth.
This time, he buried it in the back of the net.
"He even said himself, he was surprised it stayed completely on the ground," said King.
Marist's problems were further compounded when they had to play a man down on either side of halftime when Cowan was given a 10-minute yellow card for dissent, the second time that has happened against Athletic as Nicholas Carrick was also sent to cool his heels in June.
Although Athletic couldn't add to their score and were nervous about another team making a late comeback over them, they controlled the tempo well enough to ride it out for the win.
Young reserve Eric Zhang got to make his debut and had a solid 15 minute shift to finish the match.
After Peter Czerwonka had pulled out in the morning with illness, Steve Burney stepped in at short notice and "he, as usual, was outstanding," said King.
Having beaten PN Marist twice, Athletic are now setting their sights a little higher, as they will travel to face second-place Napier Marist (10-0-2) this coming weekend.
King and his team had been gutted when they lost 1-0 to the Hawke's Bay side at home on May 25, just being unable to find the back of the net, and like Saturday they back themselves on the big trip for the season.
City came into their fixture with the dominant Wanderers being more realistic, missing players with injury while a couple of others played through niggles, but it was only so consoling with the Havelock North coaching staff told them post match that they have given them the toughest game this year.
"It was pretty close, to be fair, played some pretty good football against a quality side," said injured co-coach Anthony Bell.
"Pretty gutwrenching to lose the way we did. The ball just didn't roll our way on the day.
"To have the chances we did, and keeping them out for so long, to concede like we did – it hurts."
While Wanderers, as expected, secured the lions share of possession, City hung tough and had just about as many good chances on goal as their more vaunted opposition, including three 1vs1 situations.
However, visiting goalkeeper Nick Hayward had another blinder, including snatching City's final chance on a header from a corner kick.
Bell said 30cm to the left or right, they would have scored the equaliser, but the ball bounced off Hayward's chest and he regathered it.
This followed on from Havelock North's last good chance that struck a defender's head when the keeper was going the other way, gifting them the goal.
Jordan Joblin-Hall and Alex Judd-Nuttall had strong games, with teenage defender Jack Donaldson was impressive at the back.
Team man of the match was Zane Robinson, who was disruptive in the middle by breaking Wanderers attacking plays.
Bell said even though it is not good heading into their bye week with a loss, the break is sorely needed to give 5-6 players a chance to get back to full strength, before taking on Red Sox at home.
