Whanganui Women go on goal shooting spree in Manawatu Premier Reserve hockey

Robbie Matthews scored seven goals in her first game for the Whanganui Women's team against Massey B on Saturday.

The Whanganui Women returned from their Manawatu Premier Reserve bye week with a vengence in a 16-0 hammering of a hapless Massey B team that was likely even worse than what the score sheets recorded on Saturday.

Former Black Stick Robbie Matthews, who has come back to town to take over from Kyle Penn as the new Hockey Wanganui operations manager, racked up an outstanding seven goals in the match at Gonville Domain.

Nicky Skedgwell, Michelle Low, and Jan Dixon all scored doubles, while Melissa Goff, Rachel Dickie and the coach Colleen Baylis herself got on the sheet.

For those keeping score at home, that is 16 goals, yet Skedgwell's talented daughter Lucy came back onto the field in the latter stages and also scored at least twice, if not a hat trick, as witnessed by all those present.

"Melissa reckons she came off for a sub and asked how many and they said 16, and then she went back and we scored at least two more," said Baylis.

"The card and score sheet don't balance."

The blowout still leaves Whanganui second on the table after this coming weekend's opposition Athletic beat HSHC Evergreens 6-2, who were the same team to beat Whanganui 1-0 in a very disappointing match two weeks ago.

Needing to get back on track, Baylis said they wanted to bring the intensity against a young side which, on the face of it, still should have been competitive coming in with a 2-1-4 record.

"Even against a lower team, it makes me nervous," she said.

Yet by the second half Whanganui, who have veteran players who have been together for up to 20 years, had pulled their goalkeeper as a way to encourage the visiting team.

But Massey B just didn't take the hint to spread wide and try to open up more gaps, and the Whanganui Women just grabbed the turnovers and made them pay.

"The passing was on-form on Saturday, that's definitally what led to a lot of our goals," Baylis said.

"It's a youth thing as well, [Massey] probably didn't realise on the field [what to do]."
Whanganui with their 5-1-1 record with 51 goals scored, will now face the unbeaten Athletic (6-0-1, 46 goals) at 12pm on Saturday.

"Hopefully we can give it a go, there's a couple of us not available this weekend. Hopefully the old heads can help," said Baylis.

In the Men's Premier grade, Tech College Old Boys (1-1-5) tough season continued with a 4-0 loss to the Marist Wolverines (4-3) at the Twin Turfs to start the second round of games.

They will now take on Massey A (4-2-1) at Gonville Domain at 1.30pm, the team they defaulted to on April 28.