Wanganui Athletic goalkeeper Heath King keeps the ball away from charging New Plymouth Ranger Callum Bourgoise in New Plymouth on Saturday.
It was a battle against the elements as much as it was against their opposition for the Wanganui Athletic Reserves as they were unable to stop New Plymouth Rangers from becoming the champions-elect on Saturday, with a 4-1 loss in the Western Premiership fixture.
With every other game in the Western Premiership cancelled early on Saturday, it was only due to the fact Athletic were already on their way north that the match still went ahead.
Merrilands Domain was looking a bit worse for wear as the fierce biting wind whipped from one end of the pitch to the other, with a strength which almost guaranteed a couple of goals for the team who had it at their backs.
With young David Garner taking the captain's armband for the day, a successful coin toss saw him quite unexpectedly choose for Athletic to play into the gale, meaning Rangers would have to make the most of their opportunities early or face the prospect of a hungry team with a wind for attacking assistance late in the game.
Yet it was Athletic who had the first opportunity to get on the score sheet, only to have the assistant referee make a call in favour of the defending team in what must have been a margin of millimetres.
As both teams struggled to maintain their footing on a pitch still heavy underfoot, but it was Rangers to strike the first blow with an attacker weaving his way down the left hand side of the box, through the red defensive line to open up and send the ball across the keeper and tucked into the right hand side of the net.
The early strike looked to give the Reserves a knock to their confidence, but they quickly regrouped and continue to apply pressure to the home side, forcing them to up their game in the process.
The wind continued to have a large impact as Reserves goalkeeper Heath King struggled to find the right trajectory to prevent his clearing kicks from flying straight back at him, which had a disastrous result on the 30th minute as one miss-hit found the feet of a Rangers striker, allowing him to push the ball past King into the back of the net.
With the halftime whistle sounding, the score was still only 2-0 in favour of Rangers, and with Athletic now having their chance to bring the game to the home side.
Athletic looked to settle well into phases of great play, but with a mere 15 minutes completed in the second stanza, Rangers found their way back towards goal - sending a ball across the face that was poorly cleared by an Athletic defender, allowing Rangers to tuck it beyond the keeper to increase their lead to 3-0.
However, the Reserves quickly struck back, with Scott Burney receiving the ball on the edge of the goal area and then deftly turning his defender to put himself on goal with only the keeper to beat and calmly placing the ball home.
The goal spurred both teams into a new gear, with the howling gale still biting through to the players bones, but it was Rangers who started to gain ascendancy and peppered King's goalmouth, only to have him parry away several shots and frustrate the attack.
Athletic too began to build their own pressure on the Rangers defence, with the most promising attack coming through a well placed cross from Ezerah Wood towards the Rangers back post, with Jordan Candish diving through the air in an effort to connect his head to the cross, only to have the ball sail past and parting his hair as it went.
It wasn't too long before Rangers showed why they are the top of the table, as they continued to pile pressure on the Reserves, which ultimate bore fruit, and gave them a fourth goal on the score sheet,
Their ability to slow the game down to the pace they were happy with meant they saw out the dying minutes in control of the flow until the final whistle.
The 4-1 score line did not do justice to the Reserves performances on the pitch, with even the Rangers coach commenting during the post-match speeches that after hearing the team's results over the past few weeks, he was expecting them to bring a hard game and was not disappointed with that expectation.
The Reserves get to stay home this coming weekend with their fixture against Feilding United being played on Wembley's main pitch, as they continue to look for a much needed win as reward for their continued persistence.