Wanganui Athletic and City want Federation League payback for 2017 today

It's been a long week for Athletic's Ryan Holden, left, Quinn Mailman and Jordan Candish. But they will have something left in the tank to face Massey at Wembley Park this afternoon.

Legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi once said, "Fatigue makes cowards of us all", but GJ Gardner Homes Wanganui Athletic coach Jason King is confident the high of Wednesday's Chatham Cup preliminary victory over New Plymouth Rangers can carry them through their third game in seven days this afternoon.

And motivation is unlikely to be a problem as Athletic have unfinished business with the Massey 1sts team when they meet at Wembley Park.

It was cellar-dwelling Massey's shocking 3-2 victory on a wet university campus ground last August that consigned Athletic to finish third in the final Lotto Federation League standings behind their rivals Rangers.

Massey, to their credit, were a better team than their League record suggested at the time, as they also beat Rangers in the last game of the season and early on had switched their energy towards winning the elimination-style Lotto Federation Cup title.

Coming into 2018, Massey started with a 2-1 loss to North End, but have rebounded as they held the table leaders PN Marist to a 2-2 draw and then pumped the Red Sox 5-0 last Saturday.

"They can be a bit seasonal, with the school holidays," King said of their opposition.
Nonetheless, even if Massey a missing a few key heads today, their shrewd coach Donald Piper has had ample time to make plans.

A Central Football staff member, Piper got himself to Wembley on Wednesday to be the match commissioner watching the Athletic vs Rangers clash, even though King humorously pointed out there was a closer game in Palmerston North which Piper could have covered.

"We certainly controlled [Rangers] a lot better than we had," said King, who also cancelled his team's regular Thursday hit out.

"We're going to have a light training session tonight [yesterday]. I wanted to push it out a bit to let the bodies recover.

"There were a couple of little knocks but nothing to be concerned about. The bodies have held up alright."

King credits the very experienced Steve Kerfoot, who came on board as manager this year, for having the squad in such good nick after a strong preseason conditioning programme.

Athletic will then probably run light trainings next week to try and keep as much fuel in the tank as possible before meeting the imposing Marist next Saturday.

While they're at it, Athletic should probably send a thank you card to Big Orange Wanganui City 1sts, who no doubt took it out of Rangers with their dynamic 3-2 comeback win last Saturday, as the New Plymouth side were uncharacteristically flat in the 3-1 loss on their return to Wembley four days later.

"I went and spoke to the Rangers coach at halftime and said, 'what's going on?'," said City coach Kelvin Francis.

"He said, 'aw, the boys are still shattered from the weekend, all the running around you made them do'."

Buoyed to finally be on the board in 2018 following the high scoring loses to Athletic (5-2) and North End (4-3), City are back to full compliment as the "75 clubers" Thomas Sinton and James Barnes both back in business following their red cards, and the timing couldn't be better for another score from 2017 to be settled.

City missed out on winning the Horizons Premiership by a solitary point, decided on the final weekend of games, thanks to the outstanding comeback in the latter half of the year by today's opponent Hokowhitu FC, with both clubs accepting promotion to the League this year.

"Definitely [it's a factor]. We know it's going to be tough, they beat Athletic last week," Francis said.

"They nipped a couple of goals. We know the players we have to watch.

"Just be switched on and do all the things we did last week."

The key factor can be found in another rivalry renewed from 2017, as Hokowhitu's Nick Carrick leads the golden boot standings with four goals, one ahead of City's own Anthony Bell, who is in a four-way tie with those who have three goals.

Last year in the Premiership, then-Ranger Carrick claimed the golden boot, shared with Feilding's Michael Lewis, with 20 goals, but Bell had the better strike rate as injury meant he played three less games than them for his 19 goals.

"Ant prospers on the back of the team's good play," said Francis.

"It's nice we're scoring them, but now let's tighten up at the back [on defence]."

Francis unfortunately cannot attend the game today as his brother made the baffling decision to get married during the footy season, but City should still be in good hands under manager Danny Jonas for the trip south.

In the Premiership today, the GJ Gardner Homes Wanganui Athletic Reserves travel to Skoglund to meet the Red Sox Latinos.

All games kickoff at 2.45pm.