City's Eli Fleming gets the tackle on the Hokowhitu attacker in his team's narrow 1-0 win at Wembley Park on Saturday.
Advantage City.
The Big Orange Wanganui City 1sts have pulled clear at the top of the Horizons Premiership with a 1-0 win over title rivals Hokowhitu FC Rangers at Wembley Park on Saturday.
Both sides came into the match unbeaten, having been scoring goals at will (32 and 22 in five games, respectively).
But this was a scrap worthy of a top-of-the-table clash.
While City had the upper hand for much of the match it was only an early Jordan Joblin-Hall goal which separated the two-sides on the scoreboard.
That was enough to make a happy coach out of Kelvin Francis.
"We've proved that we can play good football against the tough teams and there ain't going to be anyone tougher than these guys," he said.
"It's very pleasing."
Target man Anthony Bell and Joblin-Hall both had outstanding games with much of the play revolving around the lively Bell.
And it was those two who combined for the game's only goal in the ninth minute.
It came on the back of a fast counter attack which has become a characteristic of City's play this season.
Bell broke Hokowhitu open with a piercing pass which Joblin-Hall caught on to with a neatly timed run.
Joblin-Hall still had two defenders to beat but, with the shimmy to his right, he found the space to drill the ball into the bottom left-hand corner.
Not only were City quick and decisive on attack, they were running a high defensive line in the first half which successfully stifled the visitor's attempts to push forward.
Hokowhitu were limited to a couple of chances in a good period midway through the half but were thwarted by scrambling saves from City keeper Glen Graham and defender Adrian Ngaau.
An ice-cold rain settled over Whanganui East for the second half as City pushed for the comfort of a two-goal lead.
Bell, Latham Berry and Kyle Graham-Luke all got shots on goal but none could find the back of the net.
Their failure to do so made for an uncomfortable final 10 minutes for City as Hokowhitu fought hard to find and equalizer and retain a share of the league lead. But to no avail.
As the halfway point in the season approaches the win puts City in a good position knowing that Hokowhitu and third-placed AFC Levin, who City play next week, now have to chase them.
"It's not that we can relax but we know now if it comes to the point where we're three points in front when we go to Palmerston North (for the return match against Hokowhitu), we can afford to come out with a draw," Francis said.
"It was a battle and we knew it was going to be a battle. So I'm super proud of the lads."
It was City's fifth clean sheet in six games and against the league's second best attacking side.
"We just talked about squeezing them up. I noticed in the first half when we pressed them and we got up in their face they didn't like it so much and that was what we needed to do," Francis said.
"Teams that score lots of goals have lots of space and they can usually move the ball around so you've got to get up in their face and make them work hard for it and we really did."
Francis felt they could've been further ahead at halftime such was the number of opportunities they created.
City's counter-attack is quick and something opposition struggle to contain.
"It's something that we've worked on," Francis said.
"That is what has got us to where we are at the moment, keeping the ball moving, so there was no need to change that. We just knew we were going to have to dig a bit deeper today."
Francis said City still has room to convert more of the chances they were making and that was one area which needed work.
"In games like this if we had have scored that second goal it would have made it a little bit easier for us," he said.
"But in that last ten minutes it's about dropping back, being smart and defending out."
City head to Levin next week before returning to Wembley to host Feilding in a fortnight.