Massey's Haacihyo Haanyika jostles with City's Adrian Ngaau during City's big win at Wembley Park on Saturday.
It was a worthwhile 12 hour round trip for the Devon Homes Wanganui Athletic 1sts as they made it two Lotto Federation League wins on the trot with a 2-0 victory over the Gisborne Thistle at the Childers Rd Reserve on Saturday.
In their horror 2015 season, Athletic's first competition points came late in the campaign when they earned a draw on their last 461km trip to Gisborne, so the Jason King-coached side was looking to build on that.
King decided offence would be the best form of defence, as they looked to play to their strengths up front and in the midfield by going all-out to try and put the pressure on the home side immediately, who were back at home in front of their own supporters after two recent losses.
"We took six of our reserve team players over, so we knew with some that were away, we weren't as strong defensively," said King.
"It was a gamble. We happened to catch them unawares.
"[Gisborne] played some really good football - possession football - but we were able to shut them down."
The visitors scored goals in each half through Scott Burney and Ryan Holden, who added his sixth for the season to sit well on top of the competition standings.
In addition, regular Reserves player Jude Hiri wowed the crowd with an excellent performance, often turning the defenders inside out.
Athletic slotted into second spot on the table, behind Havelock North and ahead of the New Plymouth Rangers, who were held to a surprise draw by the team Athletic hammered last weekend in the Massey Men's 1st.
However, this is still likely to be temporary as Rangers have a game in hand.
With two wins and a draw from their four outings, King is still pleased with how the side is progressing.
"The fact we can take six of our reserves team and have them slot in seamlessly is encouraging."
More Reserves joined the 1sts team than those who made a 'Quid pro quo' appearance for the GVCA Wanganui Athletic Reserves because they could not travel to Gisborne.
With a smaller bench than their opposition, the Reserves were held to a 2-2 draw with Marist Development at the Ashurst Domain, after they were leading 2-0 at one stage in the Horizons Premiership clash.
Daniel Timmins scored both the goals for the Athletic Reserves.
There was no such problems for the table-topping Big Orange Wanganui City 1sts, who destroyed Massey Celtic 9-0 at a wet but slick Wembley Park.
Coach Kelvin Francis said the visitors had mistakenly thought the match was a 12.45pm kickoff, but they managed to get underway 30 minutes earlier than the scheduled 2.45pm start to stop everyone waiting around.
The home side came out firing and dominated possession, peppering the Massey goal until Max Davidson opened the scoring after cutting in on a lovely ball played out wide.
Anthony Bell then grabbed the first of his four goals of the afternoon, as he tormented the defence with great movement and tidy finishing.
It took him to eight goals for the campaign to rocket ahead on the season standings.
"Half time saw us 5-0 up and playing superb football - sharp passing and movement gave Massey no chance to holt the wave after wave of attacks on their goal," said Francis.
Desperate to salvage some pride, Celtic came out hard in the second stanza and put in some heavy challenges, but it did not stem the tide as Jamie Lambe scored on his first touch of the ball when replacing fellow goal scorer Max Davidson.
Coming on for Simon Peterson, Kyle Graham-Luke scored two lovely goals and narrowly missed a hat trick with what Francis described as a "40 yard thunderbolt" which grazed the cross bar.
Bell was still running riot, happy to lay on opportunities for others, and Jordan Joblin-Hall scored to add a fifth goal to his tally and second on the overall Premiership list.
Lambe was still hunting his hat trick when he had a "lettuce foot" finish which Massey's replacement keeper Jamie Wilsher reached.
Francis was a happy man at fulltime when giving three MVP points to Bell for his quartet of goals and a solid work rate, while handing out two points each to all the other team mates.
"It was a real team effort today with every player that took the park doing their job in the unit, which in turn showed in the fluent passing and movement creating plenty of entertainment for the loyal supporters on the sidelines."